Yahoo Buzz - What the world is searching for…

Posted on February 18, 2008
Filed Under Buzz, Data, Keyword Research, Search, Yahoo |

Yahoo! Buzz is a feature showing the most popular search phrases that people have entering into the Yahoo! search engine. The data used to compile the charts comes from the Yahoo! search log files. The charts on the main pages are updated on a daily basis and are currently divided into several categories - Overall, Actors, Movies, Sports, TV, Video Games and Decliners. You can get further subjects (including baseball and basketball) via RSS feeds.

To determine the rankings for any word, phrase or name, Yahoo! says the following:

A subject’s buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.

The charts are divided into leaders and movers allowing you to see who or what is being searched for. At the time of writing the phrase at the top of the overall chart is Valentines Day, followed by Debbie Clemens, American Idol and Danica Patrick. The next few are Si Swimswuit Issue, IRS, Top Ten Tax Tips For 2008, NASCAR and Oprah Winfrey. The last few results show the strong American bias you might expect. You can get a UK version here, but it is not quite as comprehensive and it says it was last updated on Thirsday December 21, 2006!

Yahoo! Buzz create a blog post every day, often it will compile a chart of phrases that have been searched for recently. “Searching for sandwiches” for example. This is a chart showing the top twenty sandwich fillings that people are looking for on Yahoo! What do you think is top of the list? Do you care? Well, the answer is “chicken salad sandwich”. Not my personal favourite I have to say.

Other phrases that have been picked up by Yahoo! Buzz include -

meaning of flowers
celebrities without makup
how old is
designer handbag
movie and tv quotes
… side effects

I like the idea of being able to see what people are searching for. If Yahoo! could use the information from their search logs to create a reliable keyword research tool, I reckon they would be on to a winner!

(The phrases included in the Yahoo! Buzz are all family friendly)

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