So what you're looking at above is swath of the southeastern US that includes northern Georgia and Alabama, eastern Tennessee, southeastern Kentucky, southern Virginia, and most of North and South Carolina. This is what appeared by default just by me looking up a place referenced in a Reddit post about restaurants in the hill country of South Carolina. Notice anything unusual?
In my humble amateur cartographer's experience, it's usually been the case where a city's name on a map, that is, the typeface, is enlarged or accentuated based on its population. No other context. (Except maybe if it's a capital city)
Yes, Google, I was searching out a restaurant location somewhere in the Greenville/Spartanburg area this time 'round, and I've often looked at potential vacation sites in the area of Chattanooga, Knoxville and Dollywood. Yes I've toyed with going to that area for a vacation over the past number of of years or so.
But now, even if I'm not actively looking for a vacation destination to spend thousands of dollars, Google is going to assume that's why I want to look at a map. And lo and behold, it makes Pigeon Forge, a very much tourist oriented location bold and beautiful on my map. And while Pigeon Forge may be paying Google a good penny for this service, and may indeed have many interesting tourist sites to visit, what is the actual population of Pigeon Forge? 6,343.
Well what about Nashville, Charlotte or Atlanta that look about at that same level of focus?
Nashville = 705,000
Charlotte = 943,000
Atlanta = 520,000
Even nearby Knoxville, looking like a tiny suburb on the above map, is actually a city of over 190,000.
So of course we know why this is. Google Maps is now in the domain of the AI, information harvesting fuckers.
Pigeon Forge was highlighted only to cater to me, and only to me, that I could very easily book accommodations to Pigeon Forge. Why else would you look at a map? You wanted to come here, so book with us.
Suddenly, I very much do NOT want to go any where near there.
I will not go there.
I will not go anywhere.
I will just stay here.