I’ve been studying Google Hot Trends for a while now and pretty much when six of the 10 results are all related to the same thing, there’s usually a juicy problem to uncover. In this case, we’re talking about the Navy Federal Credit Union. It’s been all over Google Hot Trends all day. The newswires finally figured out what’s going on. A power outage has basically shut the entire banking system of the US Navy down.

Now, I’m no expert on national security, but clearly this is a problem. Sure, the Navy’s bank and, say, the Navy’s Nuclear Submarine missile launch codes probably aren’t housed on the same server or plugged into the same outlet, but it makes me wonder how an entire arm of the government could be “out” for most of the day. In notifying everyone about this issue, a local branch took the decidedly low-tech option of a handwritten sign (we can only assume their dot matrix printers are also down). The sign read; “Due to a power outage within our headquarters building all systems are currently down. Your transactions are limited. We apologize for the inconvenience.” Power to one building shuts down an entire part of the Navy? Shouldn’t they have one of those doohickeys called a generator? I hear they’re pretty easy to get these days.

The question a lot of people ask me about Google Hot Trends is why in a case like this do so many different terms show up related to the same thing. Wouldn’t people generally be searching for the same thing using the same terms? “Of course not,” is my answer. This is partly because some people still don’t quite know how to use the dreaded internets, so they search for web addresses (like navyfcu.org) instead of typing them into the address bar. Don’t know why, they just do. Also, I’ve noticed that a single person may also search for a number of related terms themselves in hopes of figuring out an answer. This is especially true in cases where, say, your bank is suddenly dead and instead of your account information on your screen, you get this:

That’s bad. Makes you slightly nervous if this is your bank.

It could be worse. Yes, a power outage to the headquarters of the Navy Federal Credit Union took down their whole network, but some other major catastrophes could have happened as well. Here’s some scenarios to consider:

• A newt traps himself in the compressor coil of an AC unit at Google. Google dies.
• Elroy (the night watchman) at the local nuclear plant wonders aloud if the “OFF” button on “the big machine” works the same as the light switch. He decides to experiment.
• Flight 351 to Tacoma runs out of Bloody Mary mix (still plenty of vodka though). Engines stall.
• Man stubs toe on broken sidewalk in Los Angeles. Triggers “The Big One”.

See, not so bad, right?

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Posted on June 17th, 2008 by Jonathan - Everyone But You
Filed under: A Little Bit of Everything, Trends Rule

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