the buzz log
Searches Soar on the Final Four
So much for the little guy. This year's Final Four features a quartet of 800 pound gorillas. Top seeds North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas, and UCLA all survived the road to San Antonio. With no clear favorite on the court, we decided to look at each squad's performance in Search.
If championships were determined by searches, the Tarheels of UNC would be cutting down the nets. Not only do they draw the largest online following, the perennial powerhouse has one of the most popular players in the tourney. Searches on the bug-eyed Tyler Hansbrough are steadily rising as are related queries on "tyler hansbrough jersey" and "tyler hansbrough girlfriend."
But, hold up—it's not like UNC won our Search showdown in a rout. UCLA is right behind the Tarheels, and numerous queries for their cheerleaders show that not everyone watches hoops for the same reasons. And don't count out Kansas and Memphis. The Jayhawks and Tigers aren't as popular as the Heels and Bruins, but the two schools are drawing plenty of searches from fans in the Center of the Known Universe. That's right kids, both Kansas and Memphis are huge in New York City. Just like another big gorilla we know...
Filed under: March Madness, College Basketball
'Tis the Season for Madness
The World Series is about tradition. The Super Bowl is about hype. March Madness, on the other hand, is all about buzzer beaters and busted brackets. The college hoops tournament inspires fans from UConn to UCLA to predict (often incorrectly) which squads will go to the Final Four.
Just as soon as the teams were announced, searches surged on terms like "printable ncaa brackets," "2008 ncaa basketball picks," and "college basketball brackets." These queries aren't just from college-aged slackers, either. Over half the lookups on "2008 ncaa brackets" came from fans 35 and older. Additionally, women are way into the game. Nearly a third of the lookups came from the ladies.
A big part of the tourney's appeal is the inevitable (but nonetheless shocking) upsets. Every year, it seems like one low-ranked Cinderella team defies the odds and makes a run. We have no idea who will wear the glass slipper this year, so we turned to Search to see which squads are drawing the biggest buzz. Below are the top searched teams with a 12 seed or lower. Lookups don't equal victories, but if they did, the folks from Temple would be pretty pumped. Game on and let the madness begin!
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Filed under: March Madness, College Basketball
Hoops Hysteria Hits Buzz
Well, it's finally here. Selection Sunday is upon us and college basketball is slammin' down serious buzz. Queries on "march madness" are up 57% over the last week and related searches on "march madness bracket," "march madness schedule," and "march madness 2007" are also soaring.
It's the time of year when brackets bust out and become the talk of water coolers around the country. Searches on "2007 ncaa brackets" (+2,228%), "ncaa tournament brackets" (+1,483%), and "2007 march madness brackets" (+230%) have all posted significant gains over the past week. The scientific field of bracketology is also on the rise, up 106% as the nation's foremost bracketologists attempt to decipher the final field of 65.
After the brackets are in place, searches on "printable brackets," "tournament pick'em," and "ncaa basketball odds" begin to creep up the charts. Will you sprinkle your brackets with upset specials and tournament shockers? More importantly, can you pick out this year's George Mason?
If you're able to prognosticate this season's exact Final Four, we salute you. And if you're that smart about hoops, you've probably already scoped out searches "final four tickets" and "final four odds."
Finally, what about the squads not fortunate enough to qualify for the NCAA Tournament? Well, there's always the NIT. The second-tier tourney announces their teams shortly after the superior 65 are revealed. Because the NIT doesn't receive as much pub as the NCAA tourney, fans turn to Search for NIT info. Searches on "nit schedule," "nit brackets," and "nit tournament" always swish through the Buzz on Sunday evening.
We'll leave you with a few hot searches that are bound to bounce through Buzz in the coming weeks...
Filed under: Sports, Basketball, College Basketball
The RPI Riddle
Sports is stuffed with lingo and acronyms that function as a velvet rope to squeeze out the uninitiated. With March creeping closer, another conundrum is cropping up for those who don't follow the bouncing ball. College basketball is scoring in Search and three initials are dominating the conversation—RPI.
Queries on "ncaa basketball rpi" (+546%), "college basketball rpi" (+233%), and "college rpi" (+137%) have been slamming the Search box over the last week. Further down the list of RPI searches is the question on the minds of all non-sports fans, namely "what is rpi."
To offer a helping hand, we turned to Wikipedia for a definition. RPI stands for Ratings Percentage Index and rates every men's college basketball squad on a weighted scale. It's a metric used by the folks who fill in the official bracket, but it's not the only measure considered.
Here are the top RPI searches over the past week as fans prep for March Madness and the all-important Selection Sunday...
Filed under: Sports, College Basketball, RPI
Ready for the Madness?
It's that time of year when brackets and bubbles fast break their way to the forefront of sports fans' minds. Yes, it's March, and we're ready for March Madness (+147%). Searches on "ncaa basketball" slammed the Buzz with a 42% increase and promises to rise as we head into all-important Selection Sunday.
We saw a bevy of spikes after a busy weekend in college basketball. Here are a few that filled our net...
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Filed under: Sports, Basketball, March Madness, College Basketball
Madness Encircles Buzz
Interest in the NCAA Basketball Tournament just continues to grow, year over year. Without the Web and your insatiable thirst for college hoops, we would likely be in the dark ages of bracketology, simply guessing at what would take place when brackets were announced. Even the once-staid boardroom boredom of "selection sunday" (+472%) has become a capital 'E' Event on the sporting calendar.
With Sunday's enormous hoops hoopla and the blossom of millions of office pools, we were inundated with college basketball search spikes. Here's a sampling of the madness...
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Filed under: Sports, Basketball, March Madness, College Basketball
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford 400 | Breakout! |
| 2 | Indonesia Ferry | Breakout! |
| 3 | Jordan Chandler | 3481% |
| 4 | Evan Chandler | 2322% |
| 5 | American Music Awards | 1841% |
| 6 | John F. Kennedy | 1529% |
| 7 | Turkey Stuffing Recipes | 1361% |
| 8 | Liam Hemsworth | 1172% |
| 9 | Lou Dobbs | 1142% |
| 10 | Hendrick Motorsports | 888% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black Friday | +340 | 1290 |
| 2 | NFL | +489 | 670 |
| 3 | Jennifer Lopez | +451 | 515 |
| 4 | New Moon | -67 | 250 |
| 5 | American Music Awards | +236 | 249 |
| 6 | UFC | -36 | 239 |
| 7 | Miley Cyrus | +66 | 169 |
| 8 | Hulu | -11 | 154 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
For more detailed information, visit our FAQ.