the buzz log

August really began on 08-08-08, and made up for the doldrums of summer with political pomp and Olympian pageantry. Yet even as firsts were made on both fronts, the Search buzz was assaulted with the specter of Cold War, shocking passings, and natural disasters. Take a look back at what captivated the Web over the past 31 rushed days of summer.

Olympian Records, Herculean Efforts, and Chinese Aesthetics
Environmentalists watched the skies and activists watched the streets, but Olympic fans were out in phenomenal force to watch the Beijing opening ceremony (+19,435% in searches) unroll with cinematic precision. The amateur contest engaged millions, many who wondered about rules and gamesmanship, and asked an awful lot of questions.

Of all the spectacular athletes, Michael Phelps dominated screentime, medals and searches. Paraguayan model Leryn Franco placed 51st in the javelin contest but second in Web searches, thanks to her pairing of beauty and sharp sticks. Gymnasts Shawn Johnson, Alicia Sacramone, and Nastia Liukin rounded up the top five. In sports queries, everything from the badminton to judo to marathon buzzed, but redemption vaulted "olympic basketball" to the top, followed by gymnastics and volleyball (beach, naturally). Ending after a mere two weeks, fans looked forward to the next fix, winter in 2010 and summers 2012 and 2016.

Unconventional Politics
The medal count had barely been tallied up before the Democrats started mugging for the cameras from sweltering Denver. Barack Obama secured the top politico spot in searches, as people researched his platforms ("obama tax plan," "obama gun control"), sought out jokes (yes, as in "So Barack Obama walks into a stadium..."), and to find his speech.

The royal families Kennedy and Clinton captured the buzz, but a Republican did manage to snare some Search light: Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin (+13,527%) gallivanted into history and into the top 100 search terms. Next up, RNC in the Twin Cities.

Gone Too Soon, Others Sticking Around
Comedian Bernie Mac and singer Isaac Hayes died within a day of one another. The shock of Hayes' passing made the influential singer the fastest moving search this month. People poured over the details of his life: music, his contribution to the film "Shaft," his wives, and his time with "South Park."

Yet it was the Mac's premature death from sarcoidosis that hit mourners much harder, almost seven times harder. His show had established him as a family man, and his death at 50 drew people to seek out his survivors and family photos, as well as his creative history.

Bad news also came with the death of Dr. Dre's son, Andre, and Dave Freeman, author of "100 Things to Do Before You Die." Fortunately, another Freeman—actor Morgan Freeman—survived his August 3 car crash, although people monitored his condition for days. And despite the odd swell of rumors claiming their demise, Dolly Parton and Lil Wayne's daughter are just fine.

Here below, a couple lists of what captivated searches this busy, busy month.

August 2008 Fastest Movers in Search
Searches with the Biggest Percentage Changes

1. Isaac Hayes (+96,545%)
2. Real Bigfoot (+86,563%. Georgians—of the state, not the invaded nation—presented "evidence" of the mythical creature.)
3. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (+71,770%)
4. Michael Phelps Girlfriend (+71,481%. No, not as far as anyone knows.)
5. Luciana Barroso (+52,657%. Actor Matt Damon's wife gave birth to a second daughter)
6. Goblin Shark (+43,173%. Footage of the deep-sea crawler buoyed its buzz.)
7. Laurence Fishburne (+41,176%. Actor will head "CSI.")
8. Melissa Lawson (+33,116%. Won "Nasville Star.")
9. Tuatara (+27,607%. An 111-year-old dinosaur descendent successfully mates after decades of abstinence.
10. Tom Cruise Tropic Thunder (+27,596%. The actor's cameo held up in the comical film.)

August 2008 Top 10 Personalities
Sentient Beings with the Most Searches Overall

1. Miley Cyrus (-40%)
2. Bernie Mac (+2,943%)
3. Michael Phelps (+2,759%)
4. Britney Spears (-20%)
5. Sarah Palin (+13,527%)
6. Lindsay Lohan (-15%)
7. Bigfoot (+2,672%)
8. Leryn Franco (off the charts)
9. Shelley Malil (off the charts)
10. Paris Hilton (+15%)

Filed under: Movies, Politics, Music, Celebrities, Monthly Wrapup, Cryptozoology, Hillary Clinton, Presidents, Barack Obama, Olympics, Wrap Up, John McCain

Hillary Clinton had it before Barack Obama won the Iowa Caucus. Obama ran with it for five days, until Clinton tripped him up in New Hampshire. Then, she lost her grip after Super Tuesday and he ploughed through before stumbling at the hurdles of Texas and Ohio.

We're talking "momentum," of course. Actually, pundits have been talking about it so much that "momentum" itself has come under scrutiny, as in this overview from NPR. A peek in Search unearths a 10% uptick in the term. Of course, the rise could be due to homework lessons rather than politically piqued curiosity, given follow-up Web forays into physics sites.

Still, considering the complete lack of "momentum" in Search this same time last year, it's tempting to attribute the acceleration to its ping-pong use in presidential campaign reporting. Plus, a handful of online queries have examined "obama momentum" and, more recently, "stop obama momentum ahead."

University of California professor and linguist Geoffrey Nunberg says that within the pages of The New York Times, the word is twice as common now than 50 years ago. Moreover, the phrase "'political momentum' appeared more often in 2004 than in the whole first first half of the 20th century." (NYT used the phrase about eight times, but you get the drift.)

This presidential election year will probably incinerate that record. Given the back-and-forth tug between Clinton and Obama, however, is the "momentum" usage even correct? Walter H.G. Lewin, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, doesn't object to the colloquial appropriation.

"I have no qualms with it," he says. "It's a wonderful way of using the word. It has practically the same meaning as picking up speed." Literally, of course, momentum has something to do with being a product of mass and velocity, and something about a vector, but Lewin sees no reason to sully the "beauty of language" with scientific literalism.

Ask the linguist, however, and Nunberg points out that when media uses momentum, they're implying the probabilities of one win increasing the chances of another. One wouldn't say, for instance, "It rained yesterday, so rain has momentum," he says. In the Clinton-Obama race, "to use momentum is to misrepresent the political reality."

Point taken. So might there be a better analogy to use in the next eight months? Odds, perhaps, like in "who's got a better shot of going ahead," Nunberg says, or who will get more media attention. Otherwise, "there's nothing to say about it." Sounds like time to learn about the conservation of momentum.

Filed under: Politics, Languages, Hillary Clinton, Physics, Elections, Barack Obama

Is Barack Obama getting all the glamour? Coverage of the Kennedy family endorsement, his David Letterman appearance, and a South Carolina win pushed media coverage and his Search numbers to a new high—double than those of Democratic presidential competitor Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Then again, Rodham Clinton isn't looking for glamour (nor Vogue for that matter either), but for delegates, and so far she leads in them. Her image as an old-guard politician isn't borne out at least according to her January Buzz profile: Her searches have nearly the same proportion of young voters as Obama (22% vs. 24%), and has nearly the same female-male split (52% vs. 53%).

Another tidbit to throw into the whole electability discussion: She pulls in buzz from every state in the union, which no other candidate has done in January. As for how fervent the Super Tuesday states are for Clinton, check out this map showing her Search spread during this primary month.

Filed under: Politics, Hillary Clinton, Elections, 2008 Super Tuesday