the buzz log
Facebook: The Movie
This is not a joke. Really, it's not. A movie about the creation of Facebook is in the works—and it's got some mega-wattage names behind it.
Hot-shot producer Scott Rudin and even hotter-shot writer/series creator Aaron Sorkin have both signed on for the project. Columbia has flashed the green light. Apparently, Hollywood loves the idea. But they might be the only ones.
AppScout has pronounced the social-networking story idea a "yawn." Mashable opined: "No, you cannot turn Facebook into a (decent) movie." New York Magazine just wants to know how Sorkin—"master of guys walking down hallways and talking"—will compose fast and heady dialogue for a bunch of dudes punching furiously at their keyboards.
Undaunted by the bloggy naysayers, Sorkin has set up his own Facebook page where he is fast accruing friends and, we're sure, resumes. We just hope he works some knock-down Scrabulous matches into the plot twists.
Persistence of Rumor
In politics, there may be no high road on the Internet superhighway.
The Web has been the way to galvanize the populace. However, that same strength and speed have been co-opted by strategists in order to hijack the political conversation. Celebrities have long had to deal with the stubborn stain of rumors, but innuendo about presidential candidates has a far more corrosive effect.
So it seemed inevitable that Democratic contender Barack Obama would use the Internet again, and dedicate a new site www.fightthesmears.com to address rumors fueled by email, bloggers, and online outlets. Originally, his campaign site allowed visitors to "fact check" a rumor, but a Time magazine report said that feature somehow inflated even crazier variations.
The rumor-fighting site apparently arose when a McClatchy Newspapers reporter got on the nominee's last nerve, after he asked about an alleged tape of his wife using the word "whitey." In the post Swift-Boat world, the Obama camp apparently decided the risks in calling attention to a lie outweighed letting a rumor became malignant.
When the smears site debuted June 11, searches for the alleged Michelle Obama remark—which first registered in mid-May—were already on the decline. The site's launch has done no further harm, even though it addresses that rumor front and center. That particular search remains on the downslide, although the woman who would be First Lady remains under intense online scrutiny. On the upside, queries have risen exponentially for "fight the smears," "obama smears" and "obama smear campaign."
The site faces a long slog. Many of the same questions and rumors that plagued the candidates at the start of the primary season still persists six months later. As noted in a January politics Buzz Log, the question marks about Obama revolved around religion and patriotism... and that was before the flag-pin flap and Reverend Jeremiah Wright fall-out.
The preponderance of Obama's searches has been neutral, positive or just plain goofy. In the past seven days, benign curiousity has centered on "obama running mate," "obama tax plans" and obama parrot." Yet there are those who continue to seek out his birth certificate and religious connections.
Counterintuitively, online searches for rumors may be a good thing, as they should expose people to as many debunkers (like the Fight the Smears site) as the mongerers.
However the race evolves or devolves, the Internet's role will rank up there alongside the first viable female candidate and biracial nominee in 2008 presidential campaign firsts.
Filed under: Politics, Rumors, Email, Internet, Elections, Presidents
Working in Glass Houses
Transparencies about salaries and job satisfaction? Sounds like a communist plot brewing.
Only a few days old on the Web, Glassdoor is already blanketed in buzz. The site allows working Joes and Janes to dish on their corporate life, from salary to CEO (dis)satisfaction.
While built on the same free concept as travel site TripAdvisor or real estate tell-all Zillow (whose CEO happens to be a Glassdoor founder), the rating system does require participation to see all company reviews.
The most practical appeal may lie in the naked dollar. Despite—or perhaps because of—a rabidly capitalistic bent, Americans are loath to reveal their compensation... except through the magic of anonymity and aggregation. While the San Francisco Chronicle summed up the possible legal brouhahas in revealing the information, Salon already charted a software engineer salary graph—even though Glassdoor boasts only 3,300 reviews at launch.
Middle management and HR hair-pulling aside, will Glassdoor work? Its launch this week already pushed the term into the top 40,000 searches. The initial Silicon Valley bias naturally has brought in online onlookers from the San Francisco-Bay Area and Sacramento, but interest also hails from Chicago, New York, Houston, Philadelphia, and Dallas-Fort Worth. Despite the heavy tech emphasis, women make up 40% of queries.
To compare: Zillow's 2006 launch attracted six times more buzz, and now ranks in the top 1,000 searches this past week. Arguably, there may be more homeowners curious about their assets (and their neighbors') then people comparing their corporate lot.
Then again, Glassdoor's timing during the highest unemployment jump in years may not necessarily be bad: People who feel stuck may find the site a good place to vent, brag or whistleblow. If this were around when Scott McClellan was in the White House...
Filed under: Employment, Jobs, Careers, Internet, Web 2.0, Salaries
Officially Yours
The Web is full of information. Some of it's factual while some of it is far from accurate. For folks seeking the straight dope with no conjecture, official sites are often the way to go.
We took a look at the top official sites in Search over the past week and found an interesting mixture of bands, radio personalities, sports teams, and government agencies. Read on for the top 20 official sources in Search...
Filed under: Internet
Streaming Shows on the Rise
Disconnect the cable. Shut down the satellite. Dump your DVR. All your shows belong to the Internet. With episodes airing all over the Web, the TV could join the 8-Track player in a landfill near you.
For digital dynamos who enjoy watching their favorite programs on the computer screen, we compiled a list of the most popular streaming shows. Here are this week's top 20...
One thing to note from our list—the utter lack of reality. Are scripted shows the only ones worth streaming? While reality shows regularly top our list of most-searched shows, none cracked this top 20 of programs worth watching online. Perhaps those striking writers have a point...
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.