If we are what we Google, then Google Hot Trends — an hourly rundown of search terms “that experience sudden surges in popularity” — is the Web’s best cultural barometer. Here’s a sampling of today’s top searches. (Rankings on Hot Trends list current as of 9 a.m.)
No. 21: “tropical storm Andres.” Googlers are no doubt wondering whether tropical storm Andres — just recently upgraded from a depression — is headed their way. Forecasts show this storm will stick to the Southwest coast of Mexico before heading off into the Pacific by Friday. Andres is the first Eastern Pacific tropical storm of a hurricane season forecasted to produce six Atlantic hurricanes .
No. 25: “kodachrome.” Kodachrome, the 35 mm color film that made Kodak a household name, is going the way of the Polaroid after 74 years of production. According to the Los Angeles Times , digital cameras have reduced sales of Kodachrome to just “a fraction of one percent” of Kodak’s still-picture film sales. The requisite campaign to keep Kodachrome alive has already launched, and Kodak is hosting a gallery of shots taken with the film.
No. 31: “Mia Wasikowska.” This weekend, Disney released a photo of Johnny Depp made up like an undead hobo clown for his role as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s upcoming remake of Alice in Wonderland . But the big news today is that Burton has chosen 19-year-old Australian actress Mia Wasikowska as his Alice. Wasikowska is probably best known for her stint on the HBO drama In Treatment . “She just had that certain kind of emotional toughness, standing her ground in a way that makes her kind of an older person with a younger person’s mentality,” Burton told the Daily Mail .
