Google knows what you did last summer

Remember the summer vacations of our youth? Sitting in the back seat, wondering if we are there yet, looking for out of state license plates, watching anxiously while Mom and Dad argued over the sprawling paper map?

Well, those days are over. These days, a family road trip is more likely to involve kids wearing headphones and watching a movie on the iPad, while Mom and Dad navigate with the help of a smartphone.

Less headaches, sure. But weren’t the headaches part of the fun?

This year, millions of people used Google Maps to help them get to where they wanted to go, and for the first time ever, Google has culled that information into a colorful chart that shows which destinations were most popular in which countries this summer.

Here in America, “paintball” was one of the fastest rising search terms from May to September. That was followed by “campground” “beach” and “golf course.” The fastest rising landmark searches in the U.S. was “Death Valley National Park,” followed by “Redwood National Park.”

In Canada and Spain, “beach” was the fastest rising search term (in the summer? really?), while in Italy they were looking for restaurants (yum). The French love camping more than I had imagined. That was the No. 1 rising search term there.

Google Maps users in Mexico were most likely to be looking for a hotel, while in India they were most likely to be looking for tourist attractions. In Great Britain, they were looking for squash.

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