Just a thought:
If you go to the New York Times' homepage right now*, and scroll 2/3 of the way down, on the right side, you'll see a box labeled "most popular", which is exactly what it sounds like: lists of the most popular stories among emailers and bloggers, as well as the most popular terms to have been plugged into the search box lately.
Right now, the #3 most popular search term at nytimes.com is apparently "olympics".
Go and look at nytimes.com right now. There is a banner at the top that says "2008 Beijing Olympics" which, if clicked, will take you to a special section of the site devoted exclusively to the Olympics. Underneath the banner is links and images associated with the top stories out of Beijing right now. This banner has been present on the site's homepage for about the past two weeks or so. Also in case that's not enough, on the left side of the page where all the section names are, "Olympics" has been given a temporary home between "Sports" and "Science".
So who in the bloody hell are all these people searching nytimes.com for "olympics"? It's all right there at the top of the frickin' page. This is not a new phenomenon - check the top search terms at most big news sites that will let you, and invariably, they all have to do with the top stories of the day. Seriously, why is this?
(Some of you will no doubt feel the urge to respond to my question with the obvious answer: it's the generation gap - it's like this because some - mostly old - people aren't used to the internet. Resist this urge. That answer's not going to satisfy me. Not as long as the "2008 Beijing Olympics" banner is, oh, roughly two goddamn centimetres away from the search box.)
*Newspaper homepages are fluid things. When I say "right now"... well, you know what I mean.
***
If you're watching in this country, you're totally in love with Carol Huynh today, aren't you? How could you not be?
Right now, the #3 most popular search term at nytimes.com is apparently "olympics".
Go and look at nytimes.com right now. There is a banner at the top that says "2008 Beijing Olympics" which, if clicked, will take you to a special section of the site devoted exclusively to the Olympics. Underneath the banner is links and images associated with the top stories out of Beijing right now. This banner has been present on the site's homepage for about the past two weeks or so. Also in case that's not enough, on the left side of the page where all the section names are, "Olympics" has been given a temporary home between "Sports" and "Science".
So who in the bloody hell are all these people searching nytimes.com for "olympics"? It's all right there at the top of the frickin' page. This is not a new phenomenon - check the top search terms at most big news sites that will let you, and invariably, they all have to do with the top stories of the day. Seriously, why is this?
(Some of you will no doubt feel the urge to respond to my question with the obvious answer: it's the generation gap - it's like this because some - mostly old - people aren't used to the internet. Resist this urge. That answer's not going to satisfy me. Not as long as the "2008 Beijing Olympics" banner is, oh, roughly two goddamn centimetres away from the search box.)
*Newspaper homepages are fluid things. When I say "right now"... well, you know what I mean.
***
If you're watching in this country, you're totally in love with Carol Huynh today, aren't you? How could you not be?