It doesn’t matter what you name something, if everyone else names it something different.

…a “Search Engine Friendly Stylebook” might be useful here.

That said, I wonder if the issue is less about what Google can understand and more about what a user is likely to type. My quick tests were probably the first time I ever typed Calif into a search field.

I just did another couple tests, and Google, at least, recognizes this. Search for Jackson, Miss., and you get a map of Jackson, MS. Same with Missoula, MT, and Jackson, WY. Google normalizes to postal style.

Maybe I’m just getting irked by parts of AP style that feel dated and print-centric. Don’t get me started on “Web site” vs. website.

It may not be. The challenge is figuring out the terms that people in your area use to find what they’re looking for. I know that people search for “Denver CO Weather” on Google about half as often as they search for “Denver Weather,” and that “Denver Colo Weather” isn’t even on the map. That would seem to make the two-letter (“zipcode”) state abbreviations more useful than AP’s.

But, still, search engines likely have internal dictionaries that map phrases like “Minn.” to “Minnesota.” It’s likely their parsers also can figure out that most references to “Wash.” mean “Washington state,” and aren’t the word “wash” arbitrarily capitalized with a random period after it.

In my day job I’ve been using the two-letter zipcode abbreviations some of the time, and the full state name other parts of the time. You can see some of this strategy in action on our weather news section (which I created mostly for SEO purposes): http://www.denverpost.com/weathernews .

All that said, I’d rather be in a S.D., S.C., R.I. or N.Y. than a Mich., Miss., Mass. or Ark.