I Know What You're Watching

We watch far more television in our house that I care to admit or really have time for - the adults anyway. I usually blame it on the general interest that drew us to or grew from our time in television. Lately, I've been spending more and more time surfing or doing other work while watching and I've noticed an interesting convergence between television and the internet. I know what you're watching and last night, it was Kipling.

Maybe you've noticed this too. I know what you're watching because I have the Google Hot Trends gadget on my personalized search page (which, btw, I've finally further personalized with the Tornado theme) and when we all watch TV in the evening, we apparently all surf the web to look up stuff related to what we're watching. While all of you were looking up Rudyard Kipling, his son, Jack, and the poem, we were trying to figure out why Kim Cattrall was playing the wife and mother, Carrie. I won the bet that she was an American.

Whenever I find names on the 'hot sheet', invariably they're names of American Idol contestants the night that they got voted off or Simon said something particularly interesting about them. It was interesting to see so many of the top spots related to the Kipling movie, a public television offering that apparently received way more attention than I'd have guessed it might.

As much as TV rules at night, in the morning it's all current events. Last week it was the midwest earthquake and the New Madrid fault system. This morning, the Kiplings and My Boy Jack are old news and all but Rudyard himself have been pushed off the top ten by Bill Maher, the Boston Marathon (go Brian and Carol!), and what I can only guess is an early morning porn rush. Not sure what that was about - that one was strange.

It's this sort of convergence that makes me curious to see what the future will bring in terms of entertainment and information and blending the two. If you have comments or predictions, I'm interested. Go ahead and share your thoughts.


How does your thinking affect your actions?