the buzz log

Detroit's Big Three automakers are pleading their case to the U.S. government. They want a lot of money to stay out of bankruptcy. The ever-cagey government is playing hard to get. "Hey, billion-dollar bailouts don't grow on trees," Congress seems to be saying.

Perhaps one money-saving solution would be for American automakers to trim down their myriad brands. We can't speak to sales figures, but we do know Search—and there's a big difference between the number of lookups on Ford and that on Saab.

Take a look at the grisly truth below. The rankings are based on a week's worth of data, and note that we didn't include searches on "GM," since that's the über-company and not a brand.

1. Ford is more than twice as popular as...
2. Saturn, which has a few more lookups than...
3. Dodge, a company that is holding a small search lead over...
4. Chevrolet, GM's biggest brand, which is about a third more popular than...
5. Jeep, a 4x4 company, which draws a few more queries than...
6. GMC, which also makes trucks and SUVs, unlike...
7. Cadillac, the luxury mainstay, which draws a similar number of searches to...
8. Chrysler, which boasts more queries than...
9. Hummer, but the eco-warrior's worst enemy does beat...
10. Volvo, a safety-first company that's slightly more popular than...
11. Pontiac, which may want to bring back the Fiero if they want to stay ahead of...
12. Lincoln, Ford's luxury arm, which struggles in Search but still fares better than...
13. Mercury, whose smattering of lookups still tops...
14. Buick, which recently parted ways with Tiger Woods, but is more popular than...
15. Saab, the swanky GM brand that is dead last in the Yahoo! Search auto wars.