Online Showdown – Most Popular Searches
If the frequency with which people are searching online for Vikings versus Falcons information is any indication, the Purple should crush the Falcons tomorrow. How do I know this? It’s my job to know; it’s what I do…[FADE IN TRIUMPHANT MUSIC]…I’m a search engine marketing expert! And so, having such highly-valued skills, expertise, and knowldege, I thought I’d put them to work for Vikings fans worldwide. (That’s how much I care.)
The following graph (see my methodology below) shows just how much more popular Minnesota Vikings related searches are versus Atlanta Falcons searches. Most people using general phrases to find information on the team (e.g. "minnesota vikings") or they are looking for team-related merchandise (e.g. "minnesota vikings seat covers"). Among the Vikings-related searches is one that Vikings fans will find particularly painful: "minnesota vikings vick 173 highlights." Ouch. That was the December 1, 2002 game in which Michael Vick rushed for 173 yards while beating the Vikings in overtime.
But if you go by individual player searches, the Vikings don’t fare too well. Michael Vick-related searches (3,634) outnumbered searches for all the Vikings players I tracked combined (2,948). Poor Daunte Culpepper: There were only 266 searches for information on him. With the exception of Michael Vick, Randy Moss gets more searches than all other Falcon players I tracked combined. But he’s not the most-searched-for Viking: That honor belongs to professional wrestler cum defensive tackle Brock Lesnar. Marcus Robinson edges out both Falcons receivers Peerless Price and Dez White combined. But the Falcons beat the Vikings on head-to-head matchups between running backs (Warrick Dunn gets 108 searches versus Michael Bennett‘s 64) and first round picks (DeAngelo Hall gets 55 to Kenechi Udeze‘s 15).
Michael Vick Is Gay Rumor
Searches for information on Michael Vick were inflated somewhat due to the Internet hoax that Vick had come out of the closet (he’s denied it on a radio show): Of Vick’s 3,634 searches, 438 were related to the gay hoax.
Methodology: I’ve compiled searches from the Wordtracker.com database, filtered the searches for irrelevent search phrases, and the resultant charts are based on those phrases. The numbers cited are a compilation of related searches; so, for example, for "Minnesota Vikings" searches, I add all related searches together (e.g. "minnestoa vikings" and "mn vikings", etc.) to arrive at a total seach number. These numbers were compiled today, August 19, 2004 and reflect the number of times people have searched during the past 60 days.
Behold, The Bright Football Player!
The Pioneer Press‘ Jason Williams runs with the obligatory "smart athlete" story today with his article "Scholar-athlete Moore seeks a less hectic lifestyle." Moore is definitely a very impressive young man but I always get a kick out of these stories because it’s like, hey! the guy’s smart! You’ll recall that we had the same stories when Robert Smith was our running back. I guess it must say something about say something about your average professional football player if having a smart guy on the team is such a novelty story to reporters. Still, it seems awfully stereotypical.