the buzz log
What’s the Buzz: Dine-1-1
It's a question that most of us are confronted with every evening: What's for dinner? Hungry surfers are setting their searches to yum.
… Hold the meat, please. Searches for "macrobiotic diet" surged 1001%, likely on the news that Christina Applegate, who just declared herself breast cancer-free, is turning to the diet as part of her recovery. Salon.com describes the meal plan as "following a healthy diet of fish, grains, beans and vegetables, and avoiding processed foods."
… The salad days. Maybe the warm weather is the reason for the 758% spike on the easy-to-prepare meals in a bowl. Searches on related links are also impressive. Everything from "salad recipes" and "salad dressing recipes" to the tasty "taco salad," "chicken salad," and "fruit salad" is garnering lookups.
…Just add carbs. Nothing beats a plate of noodles. Web foodies clearly agree — searches for "pasta" are up 1,563%. The perennial dinner stand-by "pizza" (+84%) is also a top choice, along with "lasagna" (+111%).
…Food fight. Better duck if you're looking for an after-dinner mini-treat. The trendy cupcake bakery Sprinkles Cupcakes (+704%) has slapped a lawsuit on its competitor, Famous Cupcakes, accusing the rival of swiping its trademarked "Modern Dot" cake design. Oh, just let them all eat cake.
Filed under: Diets, Food and Drink
Make Mine a Decaf Single With No Cleavage
Hooters, beware.
From the state that revolutionized the coffee experience, the idea of mixing caffeinated beverages and barely dressed femmes seemed like a natural evolution (albeit a workplace injury waiting to happen from all that steam). Enter Espresso Gone Wild, a drive-through coffee stand where the servers wear lingerie, and pasties twice weekly.
But not in Belfair, Washington, thank you, a "gateway community" that's the "final fueling and supply stop" before the Olympic National Park. Some residents were steamed at the sight of baristas in a state of near deshabille, so council members have cracked down and demanded that the java jerks dress up. The move unleashed a libertarian outcry online... well, okay, searches for "espresso gone wild" frothed up 352%.
The coffee stand's not the first in the state to institute a minimal uniform: The Kitsap Sun credits the "pink leather hot pants" at Natte Latte. Despite the setback, Espresso Gone Wild will likely stick to its its pasties at its first drive-through location ... although no photos please. The flash might deflate the foam.
Filed under: Food and Drink, Work, Jobs, Coffee, Women
It's Tailgate Time
Football's back and tailgaters are toasting its return from coast to coast. Fanatics who favor brats and beer over blocking and blitzing are ready to drop anchor in a parking lot near you. We've noticed an uptick in "tailgate" searches and to get the party started, we popped open the cooler of Buzz to investigate. Join us and whoop it up with the top 20 tailgate searches...
Filed under: Sports, Food and Drink
Bulletin: Soda Not the Best Thing to Drink
Think you're making a better health choice when you reach for that diet soda? Recent news might force you to think again. A new study of 9,000 middle-aged folks found that regular and diet soda drinkers share the same risk for heart disease, despite the belief that the sugar-free drinks are better for health-conscious folks.
Even though the study's senior author claims that more research will be done to determine what's behind the results, searchers promptly dialed up "diet soda" (+323%), "is diet soda bad for you" (+306%), and "diet coke" (+193%). Additional queries focused on "diet soda and heart disease."
Will this make people kick the sugarless carbonated beverage habit, or will diet soda fans turn to other means to keep the pounds off? Since news of the study broke, we've seen a modest rise in lookups for "liquid diet," "hoodia diet pills," "detox diet," and "lemonade diet recipe"—but it's hardly enough to predict a lasting trend. It's not always easy to break up with those sweet friends.
Filed under: Health, Food and Drink
The Smallest Saleswomen
It happens every year. You're relaxing at home when there's a knock on the door. You get up to answer it and are struck dumb with horror at the sight awaiting you on your front porch. It's a Girl Scout. She may appear innocent enough, but your heart and stomach recoil in fear of what she holds in her cute little hands -- the 16 boxes of Caramel deLites you ordered months ago. Say goodbye to your New Year's diet.
Girl Scout Cookies -- those delicacies sold once a year and eaten year round (if you have room in your freezer for a case of Thin Mints) -- were up +3,400% in Search last week. Since the official launch of cookie season on January 13, total searches have nearly doubled, and "girl scout cookies" now ranks within our top 2,000 searches. "Buy girl scout cookies" (+124%) is up as well. We expect "milk," "cavities," and "cookie jars" to reach new heights in the coming weeks.
Searchers are indeed starving for their Thin Mint fix -- especially since it takes so long to get the damn cookies. The wonders of modern technology have brought us overnight package delivery, satellite transmissions, and that Internet thing, but it still takes three months before we can overdose on Peanut Butter Patties. Thankfully, the Girls aren't totally retro -- their new reduced-fat Lemon Pastry Cremes might even give us the stamina to run a lot faster when they come knocking next year.
Filed under: Food and Drink
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.