the buzz log
June 2008 Buzz
Leading June's fastest moving searches, newsman Tim Russert's unexpected death triggered an astonishing outpouring online. His passing was followed by comedian and cultural commentator George Carlin.
The international soccer tournament besieged Search, while Tiger Woods bogged down Internet traffic during his knee-buckling win. Meanwhile, Gina Gershon moved from entertainer to newsmaker with the stroke of one Vanity Fair article and much political buzz.
In the entertainment world, "Battlestar Galactica" paused midway in its fourth and final season, but launched hysteria over actress Katee Sackhoff. Here are the terms that attracted searches and moved fast in the month of June.
| Top Searched Movers (News & Sports) | Top Searched Movers (Entertainment) | |||
| 1. | Tim Russert (+22,899%) | 1. | Katee Sackhoff (+6,216%) | |
| 2. | George Carlin (+3,668%) | 2. | Kristin Cavalleri (+2,221%) | |
| 3. | U.S. Open (+4,161%) | 3. | Christie Brinkley (+1,973%) | |
| 4. | Euro 2008 (+1,640%) | 4. | Nadia Bjorlin (+1,494%) | |
| 5. | Gina Gershon (+871%) | 5. | Alyson Hannigan (+634%) |
June searchers also followed Mother Nature's rampage as she turned from Asia to the American Midwest. Look-ups surged for "iowa dot" and towns under siege like Cedar Rapids (+5,799%), Waterloo (+1,355%), Ames (+806%), and others including Burlington, Coralville, Dubuque and Waverly. The reflex to blame climate change shifted to point to modern practices of depleting wetlands and other natural protections.
Another chapter of history closed when Senator Hillary Clinton ended her campaign to be the first female president, and Senator Barack Obama continued his quest to be the first biracial Commander in Chief. Another political figure making the top 500 terms—not Republican contender John McCain, but Michelle Obama, whose image revamp included an appearance on "The View."
Filed under: Politics, Celebrities, Entertainment, Death, Africa, Wrap Up
The Rise of TMZ
When a catastrophic event occurs, we get deluged with searches for primary news sources. Spikes on CNN, MSNBC, and ABC are a given after a monumental news story breaks. But when a celeb scandal breaks, one name has become the go-to source for searchers. In little over a year, TMZ is now the indispensible source for salacious stories and inside dirt on pop culture's biggest figures.
We graphed searches on TMZ over the past year to check the site's rapid ascent. The huge surge in early June of this year corresponds with Paris Hilton being ordered back to jail.
We're sure today's TMZ searches will be on a par with Paris's spike thanks to...
Perpetual trainwreck Lindsay Lohan's relapse and arrest. The news sent searches on the entertainment site soaring—we've seen stunning and steady query volume on TMZ and tmz.com throughout the day.
Who's looking for the hottest three letters in on-the-scene Hollywood reporting? Well, two-thirds of TMZ lookups are from ladies and the site skews toward the 25-44 age bracket. What's also interesting is that this is a trend that teens aren't into—a tiny 5% of searches come from the teenybopper crowd. Have no fear, we're sure they'll graduate from Teen Beat to TMZ in no time.
Filed under: Entertainment, News
Rampant Rumors
Big wheel keeps on turnin', rumor mill keeps on churning. Here on the river of Buzz, we're watching a wide variety of rumor queries float through the Search box. Plenty of sports fans are listening intently for whispers of trades, signings, and player malfeasance—witness the popularity of queries on "lakers rumors," "mets rumors," and "oakland raiders rumors." Rumors really gather steam online when a celeb name is involved, and scuttlebutt about casting choices and romance are fodder for curious searchers.
Which entertainment rumors are folks buzzin' about right now? Here are the top 20 rumor-licious searches...
Filed under: Celebrities, Rumors, Entertainment
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kara Dioguardi | Breakout! |
| 2 | Brooke Mueller | Breakout! |
| 3 | Genie Francis | Breakout! |
| 4 | Goliath Grouper Fish | Breakout! |
| 5 | Hari Puttar | Breakout! |
| 6 | Tropical Storm Gustav | Breakout! |
| 7 | Mia Hamm | 33250% |
| 8 | Ellen Barkin | 26799% |
| 9 | Luciana Barroso | 20830% |
| 10 | Giant Squid | 16720% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amanda Peet | +542 | 549 |
| 2 | Dancing With The Stars | +304 | 327 |
| 3 | 2008 Olympics | -377 | 323 |
| 4 | Ellen Barkin | +273 | 274 |
| 5 | Luciana Barroso | +245 | 246 |
| 6 | Mia Hamm | +229 | 229 |
| 7 | Hi-5 | -17 | 219 |
| 8 | Jessica Biel | +160 | 198 |
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.