Overture search volume is too consistent

[rrl]

I've noticed that if you search for a state followed by 'lawyer' or 'attorney', you'll see incredibly similar results. For example, state + lawyer + silicosis gets searched 25 times per month in pretty much ever state I've looked at. The same holds true for other phrases, such as state + lawyer + mesothelioma.

The odds of that truly happening are astronomical. So what's going on? Is someone using an automated system to perform these searches? Why is it that the combination gets searched the exact same number for every state? Clearly the results are bogus, but is it something Overture is doing or somebody else?

[shorebreak]

I did a search on Overture's STST, and got widely varying searches/month for

California lawyer
Oregon lawyer
New York lawyer
Texas lawyer
Maine lawyer
Virginia lawyer

and again widely varying searches/month when I looked by

[State] malpractice lawyer

[seth_wilde]

I've seen this for some searches as well.. I think it's national firms running automated queries.. but there's no way to be sure..