Topic of Interest: Incidental trends: After writing "UR Trending" this morning I noticed that there were a couple of cases of "incidental trends". Or trends that piggyback on the popularity of another topic, that may be more relevant, but show up lower in the search for one reason or another.
A case of this is "Ron White". Comedian Ron White recently announced his Spring and Summer tour dates. Incidentaly, yesterday, a large group of veterans protested in front of the White House in support of Ron Paul. Since a generic search for information would carry the terms both "Ron" and "White" both where buoyed into the top 20. At least that's the theory.
Now, the only reason you read the first seventy words of this article, Google Trends.
20. Lisa Lampanelli - From Las Vegas to Atlantic City the "Queen of Mean" has been KILLING it on tour. Rave reviews coast to coast for this Celebrity Apprentice competition.
19. Lent - Or the Judeao-Christian "Lenten" season, runs 40 days starting at some point between the middle of February and middle of March. This is calculated by observing the liturgical calendar, and represents the fourth season of the year or the season of starvation and sacrifice. Generally Lent is observed leading up to Easter... actually that's always I think.
18. Pau Gasol - Trade rumors abound, you can catch snippets of Kobe Bryant bad mouthing Lakers front office for holding back info on a possible trade. Search "Kobe's a big mouth" or Pau Gasol, for details.
17. Ron White - This is incidental, and by the posting of this article, we'll see some clarity. The search term that will bear the most fruit is "Troops march on White House" or "Ron Paul White House" or "Ron White House". The only reason I'm going more in depth with this, than say, something about Lisa Lampanelli, is that by tomorrow night, "Ron White" is going to go away. SEO being what it is, those that are ignorant that search say "Veterans march for Ron Paul" will probably get something entirely different tomorrow night, or inside of a couple of days. Such is the way of Google trends, relevance is measured both in the past and present. But I digress.
**[News(ish) Bulletin special report (thing)]** Reportedly "hundreds" of veterans marched to the gates of the White House yesterday in support of Ron Paul. Vets stopped in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and saluted for eight minutes, one second for every veteran that's committed suicide since the beginning of the Barack Obama administration. They then held a silent prayer for 21 minutes, one second for ever serviceman and woman that has lost their lives since Obama took office. I'm not going to get into this but do the math. Yes, that is a long time to hold up your arm, but also take a look and compare the numbers in war time years to other presidents.
**The other side of the S-E-optimizational coin** Top selling comedian Ron White just announced tour dates in the South and mid West, along with dates in Florida. Ron Paul, foiled again by Google.
16. Ash Wednesday - Is tomorrow. Today is Fat Tuesday the end of Mardi Gras. Ash Wednesday or the "dirty" hump-day; as it is often referred to as in the business*, marks the beginning of the "Lenten" or Lent season. Observed in some fashion or another by followers of the Judeo-Christian-Abrahamic faiths.
15. Stephen Colbert - Is NOT DEAD. He's not releasing a Valentines Day album, and everyone out there who's been relying on him for pseudo-news can draw an easy breath, he's not being shut down by the FCC. His Mom is sick, so send the guy a nice letter or something. Enough of this kidnapped by the FBI crap.
14. Mardi Gras - Here's your chance to showcase your "talents" actual, questionable, imagined or "otherwise". You can Google search "Mardi Gras beads" and filter the shopping results for a look into just where the tradition of bead tossing comes from. As the day progresses that search will become increasingly NSFW.
13. Rajon Rondo - Celtics starter gets put in timeout by the league for chucking a ball at a ref during Celtics v. Pistons game a couple nights back.
12. Band of Brothers - Ah! A perfect case of trend hopping! Spike TV has been running a 'Band of Brothers' marathon, HELLYEAH, just announced that they are releasing their third disc in June.
**What a great idea! Find some crap that a bunch of people give a crap about, name your unimportant crap after the crap that other people think is important. Release your crap while folks are thinking about other crap that they actually give a crap about. Instant free in to Google trends. Congratulations/ condolences Ron White/ Paul.
11. Knicks - Back in the news in spite of nobody having a fuck to give about Linsanity. They lost to the Nets recently, here's a tip, I've been watching Baron Davis play for ten years. I still ask my roommate if he plays for Golden State. Take a fallow season boys, trade up, do what you gotta do, but give poor Baron's knees a rest m'kay? Oh, and the Knicks penned a deal with Time Warner Cable, for broadcast rights. New York readers, please care or do not care, according to your individual nature and preference.
10. Gas Prices - Another thing to keep our minds off taxes right? Gas prices spike, there's bound to be a lot of back story and related searches. Take for instance "Iran Finance", "America Arms Syrian Rebels", "Iran America diplomacy", etc. et al. ad nauseum.
<soapbox> Search as much as you want for "gas prices" it's not going to do a damn thing about the fact that they're still going up. Get informed, write your congressman, participate on the community level, send representatives from your hometown to DC to bang on doors and rattle cages. Gas prices won't change in proportion to how much you worry about them, we haven't tried changing them any other way. </soapbox>
9. Bachelor - You'll find it out by the end anyway, Courtney is a c*nt.
8. The Voice - Season Two toils on, exciting things are afoot in some wide-eyed young up-and-comers musical career. Check your local listings for details.
7. Cee Lo - Is still riding on his work with Danger Mouse in my mind. I'm still waiting sir...
6. Seabiscuit - Again, this is incidental, Texas Tech coach Billy Gillespie said something about a racehorse and this shit races across the interwebs like wildfire. Next up: Seabiscuit, the extended-super-platinum-redux... on BETA MAX.
5. Deron Williams - Pounded the Knicks into submission. Yeah, I know... I'm a part of the problem.
4. King Cake - I've disparaged this swamp state confection in the past, I'm fairly certain I've changed my mind. It's basically pecans and whipped something or other stuffed into dough and baked then covered in icing. I know I talked crap about this desert before, shame on me, all hail the King Cake.
3. Manny Ramirez - Has signed with the A's minor league outfit.
2. Fat Tuesday - Marks the culmination of Mardi Gras. #rehash... Lent, beginning of the season of sacrifice, one last hurrah etc.
1. Bethenny Frankel - Reality TV star talks to entertainment media about her recent miscarriage.
*never have I ever heard of Ash Wednesday referred to as "the 'dirty' hump-day"
-KC Hoye
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