100 Days of Search

If you want to find out how President Obama did during the first 100 days of his new gig, you can turn to the pundits. You might look to past presidents like FDR or LBJ. But what did America think of the first 100 days? Thanks to the power of Google Insights, a tracking program that compiles search results into scalable data, we can find out exactly what Americans felt in every corner, on any given day. Forget the talking heads and read the 16 things the Internet can teach you about Obama's first 100 days. The president promised change, so you all deserve the final word.

1. Obama Should Thank Bobby Jindal.
Google Insights works by normalizing all data that America is searching onto a numerical scale, indexing keywords based on how many people are searching that term compared to all other searches. Over the last 100 days, the "Obama" search has fallen from an 86 to around a 27. Which means, roughly, that people have stopped caring as much. But there were two days that Obama spiked in the search results. The biggest was Feb. 25, the day after Obama's speech to the joint session of Congress. Presumably, those who missed the speech searched to find out what their president had to say—and, of course, to listen to Bobby Jindal's, uh, unpolished response. That makes total sense, given that the Internet is perfect for spreading two things: news and comedy. Combine the two and you have Obamafied search-engine gold.

 

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2. No, Really. Don't Underestimate Comedy.
The second spike in Obama searches happened March 20. On that day, the search scored a 93 based on the myriad users who were bored at work and looking to laugh at the banter between the president and late-night host Jay Leno that had occurred the night before. On the same day, Michelle planted the White House vegetable garden, and the president released a tape where he speaks to the people of Iran. Both these things are significant and made airwaves, of course, but little can compare to the president telling Leno that his bowling is "like the Special Olympics or something." Now that's worth searching for.

3. Also, Don't Underestimate TV.
Aside from those two days, the other blips on the 100-day radar come directly after Obama's TV appearances. Directly after his first prime-time-TV press conference, there was a surge Feb. 10. The same thing happened March 25, one day after his second press conference. The president has received a lot of flak for insisting on lots of TV time—including daily press briefings by his staff. But apparently, that's exactly the kind of stuff most of Google-using America wants to read about.

4. Not in Virginia, Though.
It's not that surprising that states like Utah, Idaho and South Dakota—all of which have small populations that went decidedly for McCain—don't register too high on a state-by-state Obama search comparison. What is shocking is that Virginia, the state closest to the nation's capital, registered the lowest relative interest of any of the 50. There may be a logical explanation to this: many Google searches happen during the day, while people are at work. Of those Virginians that do care about Obama information, many of them presumably work in the District of Columbia, so the Virginia data could be marred by the fact that all the searches by those people actually happened in D.C.—which Google counts separately. That brings me to my next point ...

5. He's Preaching to the Choir.
There's a well-accepted theory that people like the news that appeals most to them. If anything, Google searches for Obama confirm that: the most active regions are: the District of Columbia, Maryland and New York. Those are closely followed by Biden's home state (Delaware) and the Obamas' territory (Illinois). In short, liberal hotbeds and places that have a close connection to the administration tend to care much more about what's going on, and keeping abreast of news, than places that didn't elect these people to lead the country. That explains why Utah, Idaho and South Dakota spend their time searching for other terms.