the buzz log
Iranian President Stirs Up Search
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's brief visit to New York City sparked a fiery amount of attention in Buzz. Searches for "ahmadinjead" blew upwards nearly 1,000% over the past week and "iran president" surged 2,317%. The Iranian's blistering remarks at the United Nations boosted queries for "ahmadinejad un speech," but most of the online notice focused on his gig at Columbia University.
Student protesters swarmed the college campus and packed the auditorium to hear Columbia President Lee Bollinger introduce (and slam) the Persian leader. Online, demand for "ahmadinejad columbia transcript," "ahmadinejad columbia speech," and "ahmadinejad at columbia" erupted.
The private school's invitation to the firebrand politician brought it both scorn and praise. Buzz for "columbia university" soared. Many searchers hit the Web for more on "columbia iran" and "columbia university ahmadinejad." That's one association the school's trustees surely don't relish.
Filed under: Politics, Iran, Middle East
Danger Pay Is Their Business
Last week agents of Blackwater USA killed a number of civilians in Iraq. Following the incident, the private security firm was grounded in Baghdad's Green Zone. News of the bloody affair emboldened buzz on the guns-for-hire, though not in a way we would have imagined.
Searches for "blackwater" and "blackwater iraq" made logical leaps. Yet who could have imagined that news of a deadly encounter in one of the most dangerous places on the planet would spark a rush on queries for "blackwater usa jobs" or "blackwater security jobs"? Over 81% of the queries came from men, and 64% of those were men between the ages of 25 and 54. Hazard pay certainly has its adherents.
Working as a security consultant for Blackwater USA may not qualify as one of the world's most dangerous jobs—the top spot on that list goes to fishermen, incidentally—but we're sure the occupation is a contender. As for the eager job seekers, we expect to see more searches now that Blackwater is back in service in Baghdad.
Filed under: Iraq, War, Middle East
Ranking the Buzz in the Tillman-Lynch Saga
After renewed allegations of military deception and cover-up on Capitol Hill, the sad, complex, and sometimes baffling cases of fallen corporal Pat Tillman and injured private Jessica Lynch returned to the Buzz.
Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan by accidental fratricide has surfaced in headlines repeatedly over the last three years. And Jessica Lynch, a woman who became an Iraq war hero in a traditionally male arena, has reappeared frequently in the public eye. Both of their stories came together in a committee hearing in the House of Representatives, and we noticed a curious disparity in the Tillman-Lynch buzz. Queries for "jessica lynch" ranked in the top 200 searches. Tillman searches, meanwhile, ranked in the top 1,500.
The shifting accounts of Tillman's death and the effects of Jessica Lynch's media hype shouldn't really be pitted against each other. If true, the allegations of cover-up and deception in both cases are equally serious. Yet, from the Search numbers we can see that Lynch carries more favor in Search than Tillman.
We know from experience that an attractive woman can generate big numbers in the Buzz, but can that really be at play in the Tillman-Lynch saga? Is there something else about either soldier's story that resonates with the public? While we wait to see how far the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform takes the cases of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch, feel free to voice your opinion. How do you feel about the hearings, the heroics, and what are your hopes for how the investigations unfold?
Filed under: Iraq, Military, Government, Middle East
Watching the New Yorker
In the wake of a cease-fire (+103%) in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, a new story appearing in the August 21 edition of The New Yorker (+70%) has stirred up a number of compelling searches. Entrenched politics and military maneuvers appear to have run their course (for the time being), with Israel, Hezbollah, and the United Nations preparing for next steps in this latest Middle East crisis.
Meanwhile, we've been monitoring search spikes caused by the latest work of Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Seymour Hersh. In his article, called "Watching Lebanon," Hersh—who broke the Abu Ghraib story in 2004—describes how the Bush administration may have actively encouraged Israel's campaign, and actively discouraged an immediate cease fire. Hersh reports that the administration, primarily the office of Dick Cheney (+30%), sought to observe Israel's success or failure in Southern Lebanon as a way to predict potential outcomes of an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
With the buzz surrounding Hersh's controversial article, we can only hope it opens further dialogue on the role of the U.S. in an increasingly volatile Middle East.
Filed under: News, Middle East, The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh
Searches on the Middle East
Renewed fighting in the Middle East is spurring a variety of searches. Queries on Lebanon are up over 400% this week after the nation came under attack from Israeli air strikes. We've also seen a rise in searches on "lebanon map," "lebanon news," and "lebanon war" as tensions continue to escalate.
Searches on Israel are up 218% this week and show no signs of abating. Related queries also on the rise include "israel military," "israel newspapers," and "israel air force." Groups opposing Israel, including Hamas (+47%) and Hezbollah (+1,112%), have also attracted large numbers of searches.
Folks attempting to sort out the roots of the conflict searched on "what is hezbollah," "gaza strip map," and "history of israel." Other searches cropping up as a result of the ongoing fighting include...
Filed under: Lebanon, Israel, Middle East
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lin Chi Ling | Breakout! |
| 2 | Gloria Diaz | Breakout! |
| 3 | Freida Pinto | 27459% |
| 4 | Gloria Estefan | 9975% |
| 5 | Gloria Velez | 6463% |
| 6 | Gloria Trevi | 3878% |
| 7 | Faith Hill | 2081% |
| 8 | 60 Minutes | 1114% |
| 9 | Alexis Denisof | 994% |
| 10 | Lee Ann Womack | 987% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NFL | +464 | 575 |
| 2 | Britney Spears | +194 | 316 |
| 3 | Hi-5 | -11 | 244 |
| 4 | Black Friday | +23 | 212 |
| 5 | Freida Pinto | +198 | 199 |
| 6 | UFC | -24 | 194 |
| 7 | Club Penguin | -30 | 161 |
| 8 | Gloria Estefan | +149 | 150 |
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.