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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Greater Middle East Autocomplete

So I decided to do a simple Google autocomplete search of Middle East nationalities (Turkish vice Turkey) to see what the popular American connotation is for each place/culture.  Some answers were surprising.  Results in bold and personal thoughts in parentheses.

Ordered roughly in geographic terms from north to south, west to east
  • Turkish Airlines (Flag ship of Turkey)
  • Syrian Civil War (Syria is this generations Lebanon)
  • Lebanese Taverna (The new yuppie generation likes the friendly Middle East they think of when they imagine Lebanon, not the 1980s civil war.
  • Libyan Embassy DC (Expats needing to network beat out the revolution)
  • Egyptian Gods (Pyramids et al is what most people will think of for a very long time)
  • Israeli Embassy (Couscous and Palestinian Conflict are the runners up)
  • Jordanian Embassy (Jordan is a black hole for many Americans)
  • Iraqi Dinar (Want to invest in a scam?)
  • Iranian Hostage Crisis (Argo et al won't let Americans forget 1979 much as Iranians did not forget 1953)
  • Kuwaiti Dinar (Better than the runner up Kuwaiti Oil Fires)
  • Saudi Arabian Airlines (Actually a pretty nice airline)
  • Yemeni Street Dog (Poor Yemen.  The rump of the Middle East is equated to adoptable dogs)
  • Omani Riyal to USD (business and travel)
  • Bahraini Dinar (business and travel beat out a crushed Arab Spring)
  • Qatari Diar (Real estate you will never be able to afford)
  • Emirati Cuisine (Mid East food is always good)

1 comment:

Dina said...

You really come up with some novel ways of doing research. :)
Couscous is #2 for Israeli???