Or at least, what we thought of doing.
Even if you’re afraid that Google Skynet might still be a distant possibility, it’s still mind-blowing to realize how much data passes through Google’s servers on a daily basis. Earlier this month, the team at Google Maps compiled data from the end of May to the beginning of September. They looked at all the searches from maps.google.com in the Northern Hemisphere to find out what a lot of people thought of doing this summer.
Camping was the top-searched activity in France, while in Canada and Spain, the top-rated search was for the beach (or as they say, “la playa”). In Great Britain, squash appears to be a highly popular summer activity, while the Dutch appear to have a great love for theme parks.
Here in the United States, paintball was the top searched-for activity. But Google also plotted out the most popular landmarks in the United States by how often they were searched for, which resulted in some good news for those of us currently living on the West Coast. Death Valley, Redwoods and Yosemite National Park beat out other popular tourist attractions by far.
It looks like Ken Burns hit the nail on the head when he termed the national parks to be “America’s best idea.” Is it too early to start planning next summer’s vacation?
Image: Google Official Blog