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Volcanic or Bushwacker?
Google Trends Maps True Interest in News Stories

June 15, 2010 - In the face of blanket mainline media focus on BP, Internet news stories competed for the attention of news junkies: Today's stories included allegations of an Al Gore affair, a fainting General, the iPhone 4 pre-order rush, and a statute of Jesus struck down by lightning in Ohio. Yikes. Google trends counts keyword searches and uses its own lexicography to name the hottest Internet news of the day.  Indeed, Laurie David, the woman named in the Gore story took the top spot as "volcanic" along with several related keywords including the former presidential candidate himself, all the while Laurie outranking Al. The  search level for the Brazil v Korea soccer match ranked 8th as "on fire."  Lightning hitting a 50 foot statute of Jesus ranked briefly in the 16th spot as "spicy" (no, we don't make these names up, Google does). The new iPhone?  Came and went.  Retailers apparently had trouble logging in and the allocations were said to run dry by 2 PM.  Maybe  iPhones will be "spicy" again when they can deliver.  That story about President Obama stopping in at an Alabama grill for a rum concoction called a "Bushwacker" didn't even seen to rank among Internet news junkies.  Not volcanic, or on fire, not even spicy.  Just another Tacky Jack's bushwacker.