Rant #1,746: What's Trending Now?

In this Internet age, things and people that nobody paid attention to become big news online, for some unknown reason.

Take the "Trending Now" area of your Yahoo home page.

If you open your day by going straight to that page, you know that they list 10 people or ideas that are trending "now," which I take to mean people are looking up on the Internet "now."

I think a lot of what is trending "now" is based on things that you, yourself, just happen to look up, or maybe these are things that are paid for to Yahoo to trend, but whatever the case, "Trending Now" has been a constant source of amusement for me.

Right now, at exactly 4:33 a.m. in the morning, my "Trending Now" area lists the following:

Yes, I kind of chopped off the list a little bit, but this is what my "Trending Now" area lists right now.

I have no idea who Brittanee Drexel is. Let's see ... hers was a sad story. She was a spring breaker who was reportedly raped and then had her body thrown to the alligators, or so it was said to be by some very shady characters.

I also have no idea who Nick Viall is. Let's see ... did he break up with Jen Saviano of "The Bachelor?" I could care less.

There are some other fairy interesting things on here, including WWE Wrestler John Cena, the current face of the sport, Drew Barrymore, whose popularity I really could never quite figure out, Burger King, which I eat on occasion, and the Buffalo Bills, New York State's only real team (don't tell the Jets and the Giants that they don't play in New York).

But other than that, there really isn't anything on this list that really strikes my fancy.

And then the very next time you go to your Yahoo home page, the list changes, as so:

And once again, I have no idea who Jacqueline Lauita is, but that Nick Viall character remains on the list.

I must not be too hip.

This is all a load of nonsense, but I guess you can say that it is fun nonsense.

Does anyone really care what is trending? Are these people and ideas that we really care about?

I don't think so, but it must grease the palms of whoever runs this section of the homepage.

We really determine our own trends, and I know that recently, I have looked up people like Petula Clark, and Nancy Sinatra, and I also looked up when the oral vaccine for polio was first given to children in New York City (I still can't figure out if it was 1961 or 1962, but whatever the year, I did get it as part of a sugar cube).

Why aren't those things on the "Trending Now" list?

Who knows, but look what just popped up--another list of "Trending Now" subjects:

It is now 4:47 a.m., so in the span of just 14 minutes, I have had at least three "Trending Now" lists.

It just shows how silly this whole thing is.

But at least this time, there is no Nick Viall on my list.

Just in the nick of time, I guess.