Davis's Identity Sees Big Change on YouTube

If you were to type “Davis California” into YouTube prior to Nov. 18, the top predicted text would have been “Davis California Rap.”

It's a reference to the viral music video “Davis State of Mind," which was a very popular spoof of the Jay Z song "Empire State of Mind."

That predictive search fell out of number-one a few weeks ago. The new top spot?

"Pepper Spray," of course. 

Search predictions on Google and YouTube can say a lot about how people perceive things online. In that sense, the pepper spraying marked a shift in the town's identity as it relates to what information people are seeking on the web. 

The YouTube search list for "Davis California" is now loaded with search terms related to the protest, which produced that were viewed by millions worldwide.

What about Google? 

These searches are a bit more traditional, with the top terms ending in “weather,” “real estate” and “restaurants.” Pepper spray is not even visible on the search bar.

But that's not to say Google predictive search terms are never unique. 

This blog features some pretty bizarre search predictions. For example, if you type “How long does” into Google, the first prediction is, “... cocaine stay in your system?”

Odd, but it's a legitimate indicator of what people are searching for online. And to take that one step further, it's an idicator of how people are behaving in real life.

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