Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Hurricane Charley Boosts Traffic to Weather Sites

Apparently, lots of folks across the country were interested in Hurricane Charley's wherabouts and path of destruction. Although I had considered posting about the hurricane from a first person perspective, since I was in it's path in Florida, I opted to keep my family safe rather than blog Charley. I know I made the right choice but below is a portion of the full story.

According to Hitwise traffic data, the top 10 most popular Web sites for the week ending August 14 were (in order), Weather.com, Accuweather.com, Yahoo! Weather, Weather Underground, National Weather-Southern, National Weather-Central, WeatherBug, NOAA National, National Weather-Internet Weather, and the National Hurricane Center.

However, only one member of the top 10, the National Hurricane Center, was among the weather sites to have witnessed an increased in share of U.S. visits from August 7th to August 14th. Hurricane advisories received the biggest traffic increase--1,005 percent--followed by The Hurricane Center, at 287 percent, the National Hurricane Center, 231 percent, Hurricane and Storm Tracking, 170 percent, and The Hurricane Weather Center, 158 percent.

I remember a Don Henley song about the news media back in the 80's named "Dirty Laundry". Everyone wants to witness a tragedy but we especially witnessing it in the second person through our favorite tv personalities so we don't feel quite as bad about the event.

I make my living off the Evening News
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundry

Well, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry

Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em all around

We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
comes on at five
She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam
in her eye
It's interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry

Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a
running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundry

You don't really need to find out what's going on
You don't really want to know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough love
Eat your dirty laundry

Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down

Kick 'em when they're up
Kick 'em when they're down
Kick 'em when they're stiff
Kick 'em all around

Dirty little secrets
Dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody's pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry

We can do "The Innuendo"
We can dance and sing
When it's said and done we haven't told you a thing
We all know that Crap is King
Give us dirty laundry!

Posted By Jason Dowdell at 09:32 AM
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