The issue with autocomplete for city/state inputs is that users aren’t aware of the possibilities. For example, if I search for Mike Washer and want to narrow the results down by state, I can type any state, and potentially get zero results back (Mike Washer in Iowa would return nothing). However, if Spokeo suggests the available states, we reduce the possibility of getting to a no results case (we provide the ~20 available states, and allow users to choose one).

Regarding usability on desktop and mobile, it’s actually easier than typing. Typing on a mobile keyboard is a real hassle, but scrolling through an alphabetical native dropdown list is super easy. On desktop you can still type when a dropdown is focused and it’ll jump to the matching result, which is essentially the same behavior as autocomplete, but limited to options that would return results.