While creating buzz about a movie or project is obviously desirable, in the area of online search, it holds limited value in predicting trends.
"Blog search sites IceRocket and BlogPulse both offer free trend monitoring tools, and both showed considerable spikes in "United 93'"s buzz in late April based on blog mentions. The buzz for the movie was far higher than buzz surrounding the other two movies opening against it, "RV" and "Akeelah and the Bee" (both of those scored nearly identically for most days).
"The box office figures had no correlation with the buzz. During the April 28 opening weekend for the three films, "RV" came in first with $16.4 million, "United 93" followed with $11.5 million, and "Akeelah" limped into eighth place with $6 million. The three films are expected to end their domestic runs with about $60 million, $30 million, and $20 million respectively, according to Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com. Granted, without the buzz, "United 93" may well have done only half as well, if not worse."
One thing a lot of people need to understand that search engines are truly in the entertainment business. They put on a short few second show for their viewers. This is why such entertainment giants as Barry Diller and Terry Semel are so fixated on the search market.
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