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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 11 a.m.)
No. 1: "iphone 3.0 release time"; No. 12: "iphone 3.0 update download"; No. 22: "when will iphone 3.0 be available"; No. 35: "ipod touch 3.0 update"; No. 43: "is iphone 3.0 out yet?"; No. 62: "apple 3.0"; etc. It seems an iPhone update comes out today? The iPhone OS 3.0 firmware update was announced back in March and features a number of small to substantial upgrades. Earlier this morning, the update had yet to appear on the Internet, with iPhone users apparently Googling away their frustration. A little after 1 p.m. ET, the update went live, though it remains to be seen whether Apple's servers can handle the influx.
No. 15: "Obama Kills Fly." In this case, a video is worth a thousand Googles:
No. 89 "Firebird Suite." If you haven't gathered as much already from Google's enigmatic front page, today is the birthday of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. (He would have been 127.) Although Google's home-page illustration alludes to the Russian-folklore-based Firebird Suite, the discordant Rite of Spring is perhaps Stravinsky's best-known work, both for its musical qualities and for the scandal it caused at its 1913 première. More recently, a film about Stravinsky's brief love affair with Coco Chanel closed this year's Cannes.