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Why Kentucky is the Black Friday capitol of the US

Black Friday is big news in the state of Kentucky, according to Google. Other findings: Miami took the Black Friday crown last year, and Cyber Monday is having trouble gaining the same traction. 

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Dawn Villella/AP Images for Target/File
Michelle Gianelli stocks up on doorbuster deals during the Black Friday sale last year at the Target store in Roseville, Minn.
  • By Lindsay Sakraida Contributor

It's no secret that we here at DealNews get really excited about Black Friday. Like, really excited. And while we're the first to admit that we might have "Black Friday tunnel vision," we're pretty sure we're not the only ones. And so, in an attempt to make us feel better about ourselves, we turned to the Google Trends tool to see how excited everyone else is, too.

But first, we should clarify: The Trends tool doesn't actually measure excitability, if you can believe it. Rather, it shows the breakdown of where and when people search for a certain keyword. And instead of showing absolute values for how many times people search a term, Google instead assigns a rating of sorts, on a scale of 0 to 100. The bigger the number, the higher the relative search volume.

While it may be oversimplifying, we hold that higher search volume = more excited! And so, with this in mind, we dug into the Trends tool to find out who cares about Black Friday the most. As it turns out, the state of Kentucky is really, REALLY excited.

Kentucky Is Pretty Serious About Black Friday

The state of Kentucky has been in love with Black Friday for the past nine years. During that time, its citizens have searched for "Black Friday" more times than any other state. Why the good people of Kentucky consistently love Black Friday so much we may never know, but it might have something to do with their enthusiasm for towel deals.

Miami Wins Black Friday 2012

Last year, Miami topped the list of U.S. cities that searched for Black Friday, which isn't surprising considering how fanatical some Florida residents can be for the event. Conversely, at the bottom of the top 15 is San Francisco.

The DealNews Huntsville Office Has Inspired Mass Googling in Alabama

As far as "metro areas" go, Dothan, Alabama scores a 100 on the excitability scale. It should be noted that, while Dothan is 296 miles from DealNews' Huntsville office, the enthusiasm of our deal writers is pretty contagious. So despite the distance, we might very well be the driving force behind this stat.

Black Friday Awareness Has Deepened Each Year

On a more serious note: Across all states, Black Friday searches have generally increased every year since 2004, which is in line with the growing hype we've seen surrounding the shopping holiday. There was a slight dip in searches in 2012 compared to 2011, but it was relatively minor.

But Basically Nobody Cares About Cyber Monday

Not surprisingly, interest in (or awareness of) Cyber Monday has grown over the years, but at a much slower rate than Black Friday. A closer look at the 2012 stats suggests that Cyber Monday might be more of an "afterthought" for shoppers since the volume didn't truly start to rise until Thanksgiving; comparatively, Black Friday searches grew throughout the month of November.

Readers, how excited are you for Black Friday? Have you already started scanning the Black Friday predictions and memorizing the Black Friday ads? Do any of you know why Kentucky is so crazy in love with Black Friday? Show us some love in the comment section below.

Lindsay Sakraida is the features director for Dealnews.com, where this article first appeared: http://dealnews.com/features/Kentucky-Loves-Black-Friday-More-Than-You/884147.html

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