PHOENIX (CBS5) -
A venture capitalist from New York has compiled an interactive map of all the words most commonly used when people look up a state on the internet.
You may be surprised to hear what others think of the Grand Canyon State.
Arizona is known for its dazzling desert beauty, glorious wintertime temperatures and our state gets called out for some controversy like SB 1070 or Gov. Jan Brewer's finger wag with the president.
So here's the question, when it comes to Arizona, what comes to mind?
That's where Google comes in.
It's one interesting way to find out what people think.
We hit the streets and asked some folks what one word they would use to describe Arizona.
One woman laughed, another said, "diverse," and some other words we heard were, "dry" and "hot."
Venture Capitalist Renee DiResta asked Google.
She simply typed in a statement for every state.
"So the thing that is interesting about Google auto complete is it shows you what people are searching for," she said during a Skype interview Friday.
DiResta said in Google she typed, "Why is [Enter state's name here] so …" and the let the Internet search engine autocomplete the function.
She then recorded the top adjectives that popped up on an interactive blog called No Upside.
"I was surprised it was so negative," DiResta said.
For the state of Arizona she said, the top four words are: hot, racist, conservative and crazy.
But you don't have to believe everything you read on the internet.
One woman told us, "I'll say paradise. That will be my word. Paradise."
Copyright 2012 CBS 5 (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
