The Sunshine Empire

Google Trends is a fascinating tool for webmasters and bloggers, but it is also a great window into how gullible the average web surfer is. The top ten search terms listed on the Google Trends are usually a microcosm of what is going on news wise in the country. When Sarah Palin was picked by John McCain as his running mate, the top ten was full of Palin related searches. This morning the top ten had several searches related to the UFC match won by Brock Lesnar last night. Yet for the last month it seems every few weeks there will be searches for celebrity death rumors. Right now the search term hottest is miley cyrus dead. Of course she’s not dead, but enough people on the net seem to think so. Now I understand that the possible death of Miley Cyrus would be horrifying and major news, but this pattern plays itself out on Google Trends all to often. Weeks ago I found several terms relating to the possible death of comedian Katt Williams. Before that it was the rumored death of Lil’ Wayne. How do these things spread without any indication of such on any news source whatsoever. I wonder if it is just a matter of simply emailing a stranger that you head someone died, and then let the magic happen.

In all seriousness I have some information that has just come across the Sunshine Empire rumor hotline. Apparently Gerald Ford is dead.