Google “looked at the most popular searches conducted for 11 months of 2008 (we compile this list by early December) and ranked them based on how much their frequency increased compared to 2007,” dubbing these the “fastest rising” search terms of the year (h/t Kevin Drum). And?
“Fastest rising” search in Google News? “Sarah Palin.” “Fastest rising” search in Google Images? “Sarah Palin”. “Fastest rising” search for Google proper? “Obama.” And “Fox News” is sixth and the only news org on that list. (Why so many more “Fox News” Google searches this past year than in 2007? All entirely election-related? Or, what?)
“Fox” also tops the “Top Sources [Searched] For Political News” in 2008 list:
1) Fox
2) CNN
3) ABC
4) CBS
5) MSNBC
6) Drudge Report
7) New York Times
8) SNL (thanks to searches for the “show’s up-to-the-minute spoofs on the campaign.”)
9) Huffington Post
10) Wall Street Journal
Not surprisingly, “Joe the Plumber” is first on the list of top “Campaign Buzzwords” searched in 2008 (“lipstick pig” is sixth).
every one links onto FOX just to see the lies and bullshit they come up with....I don't believe that you Yanks continue to read/listen to FOX particularly with that (as we call in Australia) first class DICK HEAD like Hannity, Lumburg? et al.
You can have them.
God Bless America & Australia.
Aussie Henry
Posted by henry on Mon 15 Dec 2008 at 05:17 AM
Thankfully no one in America cares what anyone in the inferior country of Australia thinks.
Posted by George Lockhart on Mon 15 Dec 2008 at 08:33 AM
FOX news is a joke they are a circus of lies and hate. Thankfully the majority of Americans understand this.
Posted by Nick on Tue 16 Dec 2008 at 01:02 AM
To George Lockhart: I'm an American from Texas who has been spending a lot of time in Australia lately. You probably don't know they have compulsory voting. Most Aussies don't get why all US citizens don't vote. The Australians are much more aware of what goes on with the US political system than most Americans. They know that what goes on here affects them too. They are staunch allies to the USA and their opinion does count. Australia is not an "inferior" country in any way. And Aussie Henry is right, Limbaugh and Hannity are nothing but big gas bags who make stuff up (or get it from Roger Ailes).
Posted by dan2016 on Fri 26 Dec 2008 at 02:48 AM
Fox is gaming Google News. Readers using Google News are being punked.
Folks on the Right click, click, click on nonsense stories from Fox to the point where they become Google News leads. Here are two very nutty stories highlighted right now:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480025,00.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/15/obama-end-militarys-dont-ask-dont-tell-policy/
Posted by BigGuy on Thu 15 Jan 2009 at 11:40 AM
It's interesting to me that the Fox News' website has one of the most user unfriendly interface among all the news sites, i.e. too clobbering, disorganized, lack appropriate type face, too busy, formatting is exhausting like a bloated Asian website, content cannot be located easily, etc.. Frankly, I've traveled through many blogs and news sites of serious or underground in nature but have founded only a few that link back to Fox News' site. I don't not know how they are ranking so high on Google.
Posted by evlon on Wed 21 Jan 2009 at 01:54 AM
What I would like to know is there a news search engine that has the ability to exclude fox news?. I would like to be able to put a qualifier in my new search or personal page like -foxnews and have their ridiculously slanted articles excluded from my viewing pleasure. I tdo not think Google is being punked. I do think we are being punked by google when we can not exclude sources we believe are not reliable. By allowing google to rank our searches by how others think or how much businesses pay we allow our discourse to sink to the lowest common denominator
Posted by RickF on Thu 22 Jan 2009 at 03:35 PM