It’s 71.8 miles from Washington, DC to Hagerstown

According to Google Maps, it’s 71.8 miles from Washington, DC to Hagerstown, MD. No one who lives in DC would have reason to visit Hagerstown, unless it was part of a road trip. I’ve occasionally wondered why some Google Adwords ads showed up the way they did, as seen in the snapshot below. I had assumed that the Washington, DC (Hagerstown, MD) was some sort of geographic targeting, based on my IP address. When I received a Terminix flyer yesterday, offering to remove termites for people based in the Washington, DC – Hagerstown area I did a bit more investigation. Turns out this is based on DMA areas, set by Nielsen. Wikipedia reference. Nielsen has a list, available on the right side of this page. The Washington – Hagerstown market is #8 in the US. My assumption is that Google pulls an IP address, or recognizes a geographical term in the query, and then appends the DMA information, if it’s a local search. An odd experience, but most of the mystery is solved.