Buzz Topics Week 9, 2009

Did you know, that this week is America Saves Week (http://www.americasaves.org/)? America Saves is a nationwide campaign in which a broad coalition of nonprofit, corporate, and government groups helps individuals and families save and build wealth. You can point them to the site to learn more, share saving strategies at home, school, work and business or even issue a challenge to your readers.

Oscars – that was last night but chatter around it is still hot. Here's a news story about who won what. If you've watched any of the movies, is there anything that resonated with you that you'd like to talk about with your readers? Decorating blogs could talk about how to re-create the look in a particular film, Coaches could talk about how the character overcame difficult issues and what else they could/should have done. Don't forget to slide in that ever important affiliate link to the DVD or any memorabilia that you may mention.

Engine 2 Diet – This seems to be gaining some attention after it was featured on the Today show this morning. The Engine 2 Diet is a 100% vegetarian diet created by a fireman. Good publicity or does it really work? Here's coverage about it to learn more about the product/program.

Fat Tuesday? We're seeing a lot of searches for this term but why? Because it's Mardi Gras which is “officially” February 24th. Anyhow, Fat Tuesday makes a nice factoid post, head to Wikipedia to find out how Mardi Gras got it's name and why. Or, share your story if you've ever been to a Mardi Gras celebration. Family or foodie blogs, how about some posts to cook up your own Mardi Gras?

Is Google Too Big? Following last week's uproar over Facebook's terms of use, this really makes you hesitate. Whenever a company grows to the point where it has a large share of the market (like Google), the love starts to dim and sometimes people fall out of love with them altogether. Especially when there's so much information Google can collect and does know about you. This news story at the New York Times has been widely shared and read. It outlines some of the reasons why people feel the way they do about Google. What about you? Love them or hate them? Do you ever feel Google is ‘creepy'? Or has it never bothered you and why?

Addicted to Text – this is a good post for parent bloggers. 6,473 Texts A Month, But At What Costs, a popular story that appeared on WashingtonPost.com talks about how texting is getting some parents concerned, about the cost (naturally) and also some experts are saying spelling and writing are suffering. As it that's not enough, they say kids aren't focused and aren't 100% attentive when they should be since they are in several conversations at a time. What do you think? Get your readers involved, ask them to share their thoughts and how they limit text usage of find other ways to spend 100% family time.