Sarah Palin’s antics on Saturday Night Live and dumbfounded answers to Katie Couric’s sharpshooting questions did not gain her the number one spot. Fortunately enough, more people wanted to learn more about our president-elect, the self-described “skinny kid with a funny name.”
Web trends on Yahoo Buzz showed that most people wanted to dig into the policies and character of our next president, searching for details like “barack obama biography.” “Barack Obama” is the third most-searched term of the year, right after pop and gossip sensation Britney Spears and the blowing up of the World Wrestling Entertainment stage. More people searched Obama's name than any other politician.
As more young people are getting information from multiple “nontraditional” sources of news, it is no surprise that online news searches have buoyed to the top. People searched anything and everything: from biographies (“mccain bio”) to families )“bristol palin”) to the ridiculous (“obama girl” or “tina fey hot”) to fashion spotters (“michelle obama view dress”).
Among other top politician searches were Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush and Ron Paul. Rumors about Mike Huckabee’s squirrel-eating habits and Mitt Romney lashing his dog to the roof of a car spread on the Internet. With one click people discovered the truth through “factcheck.org” and “snopes.”
Ongoing events of spitfire here and there provoked a fury of searches. People typed in “john mccain letterman” as soon as David Letterman responded angrily to McCain’s talk during the late show. And when the Republican nominee called Obama “that one” in a debate, hits for that moment were boosted.
As Election Day loomed closer, people became mini-experts on the campaign. Searches such as “politico,” “fivethirtyeight,” “real clear politics,” “election map,” and “gallup poll” showed people wanted to be informed.
The whole campaign process generated the force of a rock star’s electricity, as more people aimed to be as educated as they could about the senator from Illinois.
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