“American Idol”? What’s this “American Idol”? I had heard tell, but not until this morning was the full measure of what I now suspect is something of a cultural tsunami driven home. Thanks for the insight goes to Google’s latest goodie, the “Hot Trends” feature on Google Trends, which is designed to do this very thing: Give Internet users a fast track on which to find the latest, hippest, most-up-to-the-minute, yet largely hidden topics of public interest; you know, the stuff that that the mainstream media has yet to discover.
Like this “American Idol” business, I suppose.
Here’s the “Hot Trends” list as of 6 a.m. this morning:
4. working class hero l…
6. lost season finale
9. bette midler
10. gladys knight
11. jimmy conway
13. rosie perez
15. lost message board
16. joe perry
That’s 11 out of the top 16 entries devoted to a single television program (yes, even Joe Perry … Joe Perry! … oh, never mind). And, while I am not privy to how “Hot Trends” determines its ranking, I believe myself to be on safe ground in saying that this list would tend to indicate that there is measurable public interest in the show.
Never seen it myself.
You?
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