Hey people! It’s raplover409. People tell me to say what I think of 2007 a lot of times. Well…
2007 has had some good times, and some bad. For example of the good times, the day when I joined YouTube. March 28, 2007. (Not that it was good for you…) For bad, when Iwao Takamoto, the creator of Scooby-Doo, died. Sadly, there’s been some send-offs that we have to deal with:
1. Harry Potter
2. Anna Nicole Smith
3. The Sopranos
4. Rosie O’Donell
5. Gilmore Girls
6 . The OC
7. Barbaro
8. Richard Jeni
9. Iwao Takamoto
10. Captain America
Not all send-offs in 2007 inspired mourning, although they may have been just as heartrending. We said goodbye to a number of favorite characters, both real and fictional. Harry Potter, Hermione, and Ron, the creations of author J.K. Rowling, earned the most fare-thee-well searches with the final chapter of the young wizards’ adventures.
The online hysteria died down, only to be revived with the author’s revelatory afterword about late schoolmaster Albus Dumbledore.
In another fictional realm, we bid arrivederci to three made-for-TV families: “The O.C.” suburbanites who put Orange County on the pop culture map; the East Coast “Gilmore Girls” who showed mothers and daughters how to be friends; and the New Jersey crime family “The Sopranos,” whose abrupt fade to black sparked outraged demands for a less oblique ending.
In the real world, political farewells didn’t make the top-10 searches, but the departures of Press Secretary Tony Snow, Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did manage to register some buzz in 2007.
Had not President Gerald Ford, actress Adrienne Shelley, singer Gerald Levert, and godfather of soul James Brown died in 2006, the notables would have made this year’s list of the top 10. A posthumous movie, album, and wrangling over wills prolonged the Buzz grieving process. As for interest in the late president, the release of Ford’s 2004 Washington Post interview, in which he aired his disapproval of the Iraq war, spurred searches.
Among those who passed on in 2007, Iwao Takamoto was hardly a household name, but we paid him high tribute after the animator was revealed as the creator of Scooby Doo and other beloved cartoon characters. Shock propelled us to seek the whys behind a comedian’s suicide, a grand champion’s fatal stumble, and in particular a model-turned-reality-TV-star’s accidental overdose. Anna Nicole Smith’s unexpected turns in life seemed only the stuff of Hollywood scripts, and her death made her a bizarre, tragic figure of near-literary proportions.
Finally, in that curious intersection of the real world and the fictional, the assassination of comic-book character Captain America, who was gunned down after defending his civil liberties, was too laden with symbolism to ignore. His death provoked a strong Search reaction, although plans for his legacy to continue are in the works. After all, as one of the higher-ups at Marvel Entertainment noted, “Everything is possible in the world of make-believe,” if memory serves me correct. The same can be said for the world of Search. That’s a fact.
Rather than these send-offs, there have been many news stories:
- Saddam Hussein
- Iran
- Iraq
- President George W. Bush
- Oil and Gas Prices
- Barack Obama
- Hillary Rodham Clinton
- San Diego Fires
- Afghanistan
- Virginia Tech
In the first days of January, cell phone footage of Saddam Hussein’s final moments leaked out and tore a blistering path across the Web.
The Iraqi dictator’s death by hanging happened at the very end of 2006. Yet the gruesome footage of the event so rattled the Web that searches for the deposed leader dwarfed all other news queries in 2007.
The ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan also propelled buzz throughout the year. But it was Iran that snatched the No. 2 slot in the list of top news searches. The nation’s budding nuclear program, its controversial and outspoken president, and the growing talk of a military confrontation between Iran and the U.S. drove an astonishing number of searchers to the Web.
Back in the U.S., President Bush may be a lame duck but, as he reminded the Washington press corps recently, he is still relevant. The exponential growth of the bloggerati and surprise events like Karl Rove’s departure helped to keep buzz on the commander in chief spiking throughout 2007.
As for the hopefuls eyeing the head chair in the Oval Office, all the presidential candidates have embraced the Web. But the two Democratic front-runners succeeded in fanning the fires of Search most intensely. In 2006, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton kicked up a whopping number of queries. They did it again in ‘07. Clinton is currently surging ahead in the polls, but if past buzz is any judge (and we think it is), she and Obama will remain neck and neck in their buzz tally.
Why no Republican contenders in the top 10 news searches for the year? We leave that to political analysts to answer. The GOP candidates certainly know how to spark buzz, and we’ve seen hefty spikes on Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and, most notably, Ron Paul over the past 365 days. But their numbers don’t come close to Obama’s or Clinton’s. Regardless, searches for a candidate by no means translate into votes. Just ask Howard Dean about that.
In politics everything can change in a heartbeat—and likely will. When it comes to buzz, there’s just one thing we can count on: The looming U.S. presidential election will ensure that one politician’s name emerges among the top searches for 2008. Whose name it will be remains one of the most pressing—and spellbinding—questions of the months to come.
People have also been doing environmental stuff:
- Recycling
- Global Warming
- Freecycle
- Earth
- Pollution
- Al Gore
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Live Earth
- Hybrid Cars
- Solar Energy
2007 may go down as the year people stopped talking about the climate crisis and actually did something about it.
Environmental awareness gained momentum over the year, which marks the 10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol.
In February, Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Academy Award and brought global warming front and center. Throughout the summer, buzz on “stop global warming” boomed, and conscientious citizens looked to reduce their carbon footprint.
Another familiar eco-issue on the minds of searchers this past year was pollution, from water to air. Clearly, rising oceans and falling air quality are concerns, and people used Search to monitor what the Environmental Protection Agency was doing about them and look into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
Closer to home, hybrid cars, solar energy, and recycling programs proved popular. And Freecycle.org, a social networking approach to local recycling emerged a hit as consumers sought to exchange used goods in their neighborhoods. (Take that, landfills!)
In terms of sheer search volume, residents of the Big Apple proved the most interested in global warming, edging out the environmentally conscious San Francisco Bay Area. When it came to hybrid cars, Los Angeles posted the most searches. Whether that’s out of concern for the planet or frustration over gas prices and gridlock, we can’t really say.
2007 saw queries on global warming reach their highest level ever, as searchers acted on their environmental concerns. Feel free to do your part and recycle the top 10 list by emailing it to a friend.
Setting aside the environment actions, the fun part for me was seeing celebs and their downfalls:
- Britney Spears
- Paris Hilton
- Anna Nicole Smith
- Vanessa Anne Hudgens
- Nicole Richie
- Amy Winehouse
- Rosie O’Donnell
- Tara Conner
- Michael Vick
- Owen Wilson
Leading up to 2007, the apology circuit was the place of penance for a rampaging celebrity, with a rehab tune-up along the way.
This year, celebrities who embodied our escapist fantasies crash-landed in rehab or jail. Our searches barely kept up with the twists and turns of troubled stars.
Moving violations drove socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie to jail. Lindsay Lohan kept the revolving door of rehab in full spin. New York morning radio veteran Don Imus made one too many shock-jock jokes and got the boot. The horrible tragedy involving Chris Benoit rocked the World Wrestling Entertainment family and its fans. The story of Anna Nicole Smith, the manufactured star who became our B-list Marilyn Monroe with her unexpected death, turned into a twisted travail of prescription drug abuse, estranged mothers, paternity suits, and a baby in the balance.
Bad girls weren’t the only ones on the brink. Parental worthiness was called into question in 2007. Dads behaving badly (Alec Baldwin, David Hasselhoff) were caught on tape. Mothers of bad girls caught our attention (Dina Lohan, Lynne Spears). Bad girls who became mothers caught us off guard (Nicole Richie, Scary Spice). And mothers who became bad girls (Britney Spears) caught a lot of grief.
No other person may have embodied celebrity downslide more than Britney, former girl next door and heir to Madonna’s throne. Her tale, drawn out over the past eight years, became our pop culture Greek tragedy and the stuff of many a search. The young girls who faithfully tracked her career were joined by Buzz rubberneckers relishing news of her escapades with Paris Hilton, shaving mishap, messy custody case with ex-husband Kevin Federline, and somnolent comeback at the Video Music Awards.
Perhaps nothing sums up our reaction better than the plaintive query, “what happened to Britney?” Drawn as we are to celebrity wreckage, we prefer happier endings — be they triumphant returns or reunions. Our frenzy of searches for Britney’s first original album in four years speaks of our willingness to give second (or third or fourth) chances. As our bad girls and boys move to repair their image in the public eye, whether through lawsuits or goodwill missions to Darfur, we will be watching. And searching.
My other fave part of 2007 was all the technology that was introduced…
- YouTube
- Wikipedia
- iTunes
- iPod
- iPhone
- Nintendo Wii
- Xbox
- Sony PlayStation 3
- Guitar Hero
Queuing up is a noble tradition — the disciplined mob lining up for free bread or concert tickets. In 2007, a cell phone had people camping on the doorsteps of the local wireless store.
Turned out the lines weren’t necessary after all, but the buzz had been too long in the making to let technological history pass us by.
Apple cofounder Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at MacWorld in January. From that moment on, searches soared as people clamored for this latest gadget from the company that had brought us the iPod.
Its summer arrival had pundits hailing the iPhone as a technological leap. The elegant device did more than marry aesthetics and communication — it freed consumers from the tyranny of buttons and re-asserted their mastery over the machine.
Its interface refused to conform to engineering conventions. Instead of us fumbling with confusing controls, the touchscreen responded to our caresses. We searched for software hacks to crack its code. We anguished over its price (twice). We even sought out the music from its commercial. The power to send a text message, email a digital photo, or surf the Web literally lay at our fingertips.
The Nintendo Wii had a similarly seductive quality. It debuted in late 2006, amidst predictions of a stiff competition from the Sony PlayStation 3 and the new Xbox. We knew better. With its simplicity and relatively reasonable price, the Wii left its rivals in the Search dust. Its simple controls helped introduce mothers and grandparents to the joy of gamesmanship. Virtual reality no longer belonged solely to male teens, as the Wii ushered in the era of family-friendly social gaming.
Gadgets and games weren’t the only thing to push the tech limits. Corporate stakes accelerated the growth of social networking. We still downloaded videos of cute kitties and dance moves, but in 2007, the YouTube debate and Yahoo! Candidate Mash-up experimented with the concept of the online town hall. This was also the year that presidential candidates en masse appealed to their citizenry through the Internet.
Technology wasn’t so much breaking new ground, but entering into a new maturity. Our personal gadgets and webpages had at last connected and united us. In 2008, we expect only upgrades.
I hate to be punny, but something ‘poisoned’ my year. HA!
- Pet Food Recall
- Fisher Price
- Thomas the Tank Engine
- Dog Food Recall
- Menu Foods
- E. coli
- Food Poisoning
- Toy Recall
- Peanut Butter Recall
- Topps
In early spring 2007, reports of poisoned dog food spurred frantic searches into the pet food recall. For weeks, pet owners examined every brand of food to gauge its safety, and some resorted to looking up homemade recipes as a precaution. Thereafter, every few weeks seemed to bring word of another hazard on our shelves.
Peanut butter, that lunch-box staple, harbored salmonella. Toys bearing the likeness of Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora the Explorer, and Elmo suddenly carried the taint of lead paint. Organic foods posed choking hazards (Gerber’s) or contained tainted seasoning (Veggie Booty).
Voluntary recalls have long been a protective measure of consumer life, but the sheer number of them in 2007 seemed to point to a systematic failure. Keeping track of recalls was no longer a simple task. We researched why ingredients or additives (wheat gluten, lead paint, food preservatives) were such a danger and sought out alternatives (homemade recipes). We also looked who could be held responsible, like Canadian pet-food manufacturer Menu Foods, toymaker Mattel, and meat factory Topps.
Private consumption became a global concern, as the call-backs put our ecosystem of trade under harsh scrutiny. China was fingered for supplying the offending ingredient in the pet foods, preschool toys, and a toothpaste. Its shockingly decisive action—in which a head literally rolled—got our Search attention, but the Middle Kingdom couldn’t take the entire fall for these recalls: The diethylene glycol in fake Colgate came from South Africa, and the E. coli bacteria in ground beef patties was a home-grown American problem.
Ultimately, the commanding search surges into “food safety,” “fda,” and “consumer product safety commission” might have been more than just our diligent effort to stay informed. They might also have been a follow-up to see what steps were being taken to ensure our safety. Companies announced spot-testing measures to restore the faith of patrons, and governments made agreements to uphold safety standards.
Congress did began moving forward with reform proposals ranging from combining government agencies to making certain recalls mandatory (a recall of the recall system, if you will). Still, the queries, as well as the recalls, have yet to subside as consumers keep a close eye on what should be off our shelves.
My third best thing about ‘07 was the sports:
- NASCAR
- Maria Sharapova
- Boston Red Sox
- David Beckham
- Serena Williams
- Chicago Bears
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Super Bowl
- Ronaldinho
- Ashley Force
Sports fans have a high threshold for misdeeds. However, 2007 featured several buzzworthy stories that could turn off some fans forever. Memorable scandals drove searches all summer long, culminating in August when Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick was sacked for his involvement in a dogfighting ring.
Speaking of bums, baseball’s steroid problem caused pinpoint search spikes throughout the year. As player names surfaced in various investigations, searches would surge. One notable exception was Barry Bonds, the center of the steroid storm. We weren’t surprised that fans ignored baseball’s new home run king, and the dearth of Bonds searches spoke volumes.
But amidst the scandals, there were a few sports stories that warmed the hearts of searchers. The Indianapolis Colts‘ triumph in Super Bowl XLI spurred interest in Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy, and of course, the commercials. And let’s not forget everyone’s favorite Super Bowl flop-searches on “rex grossman sucks” still linger in Buzz.
Always lacking in sports searches is soccer. Sure, we saw spikes for UEFA, Euro 2008, and Copa America, but nothing that indicated feverish interest from American shores. Well, that changed this summer when ultra-famous footballer David Beckham came to America. Becks’ on-field accomplishments weren’t so hot, but he did manage to warm a few casual sports fans to the joys of soccer.
In a final ode to joy, the Boston Red Sox capped the year with a fantastic finish to the baseball season. They fought the New York Yankees all year long for searches. At season’s end, the Yankees built buzz over their stunning collapse and messy management bickering. But in the end, the Red Sox triumphed over their hated foes in Search, thanks to their stellar on-field accomplishments.
So where do we go from here? Will UFC continue to destroy the last vestiges of boxing’s buzz? Will NASCAR keep motoring along on a comfy plateau? What scandals and surprises await us in 2008? Those are just a few of the questions that will play a part in next year’s always-evolving buzz riddle…
Well.. there you have it.
Now the video of the day. I present to you… THE RIVERDANCE RAP!
