The Good (and Scary) of What People Search For

Google trends is a lot of fun, a bit comforting, and a lot scary.  According to today's hot trends, the #1 search is for Joplin, Mo., which makes good sense given the awful tornadoes that ripped through the town.  I feel comforted somehow, knowing people are searching for something so important and so devastating to others.

So what are the other hot searches?  Glad you asked.

1. Joplin, Mo. (mentioned above)
2. Memorial Day (makes sense)
3. Joseph Brooks (who?)
4. Bachelorette (sad)
5. Living social (huh?)
6. Tim Pawlenty (makes sense, GOP candidate)
7. npc (again, huh?)
8. ethanol (no idea why)
9. You light up my life (awful song)
10. weather forecast (sensical)
11. Kansas City Star (good paper, dunno why listed)
12. us map (weird)
13. Iceland volcano eruption (makes sense, in the news)
14. Sara Rue (who?)
15. Sammy Sosa (why?)
16. Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez (why?  why?)
17. Bryan Stow (who?)
18. Lance Armstrong (makes sense, given recent news)
19. Danica Patrick (not sure why, but okay)
20. Justin Timberlake SNL (I guess he was on the show?)

Many of the names above I've never heard of, so I actually looked them up.  Joseph Brooks was an Oscar winner who committed suicide.  Lots of backstory.  So I see why this is being searched for.  Sara Rue got married but I still don't know who the hell she is.  Bryan Stow I get now, after looking it up.

So there's a mix of the serious and the silly above (Beiber and Gomez?).  At least the serious is actually there, given the nature of the net.