Wordtracker.com puts out an interesting list each week of the top
search words and phrases, as compiled from a number of metacrawler
sites.

Some of the terms are just what you'd expect.  For instance, the
search term "Google" often tops the list.  Others are a bit obscure
(to me, at least).  It took me a bit of research to find out what
"snes rom" was all about.

Now my question:  why is "red cardinal" such a popular search term? 
It usually shows up as number 10 or 11 on the wortracker weekly
report.  A Google search on the same term leads to a number of sites
about cardinals as birds, ceramic tschatskas, sports-related sites,
and so on, but nothing of such popularity as to suggest this is a top
search term for the entire internet community.

Interestingly, I asked the folks at wordtracker and they're just as
much in the dark as I am.  I'm sure they'd be curious to know as well.

Hi davidsar...

When I did a google search for
red cardinal, as you said I returned
a few bird sites :-) 

So my next search was:
"red cardinal" -bird -birds -feather -feathers
[ ://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=%22red+cardinal%22+-bird+-birds+-feather+-feathers
]

And I found:

The Red Cardinal - A Fine Gift, Collectible, and Christmas Shop ... 

Hilton Head Island Real Estate, South Carolina, Red Cardinal Road ...

Lobelia cardinalis (Red Cardinal-Flower)

::Bleed Cardinal Red::: Cardinal Nation in Mourning

8 Red Cardinal. Large family home located next to beach path

Clematis 'Red Cardinal' Flower

A search for:
"red cardinal"  baseball
[ ://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=%22red+cardinal%22++baseball
]

Didn't convince me it was that.

"red cardinal"  football
[ ://www.google.com/search?q=%22red+cardinal%22+-bird+-birds+-feather+-feathers
]

Not convinced.

"red cardinal" catholic
[ ://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=%22red+cardinal%22+catholic
]
"red cardinal" priest
[ ://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=%22red+cardinal%22+priest
]
"red cardinal" scandal
[ ://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=%22red+cardinal%22+scandal
]

Probably not those

So, looking back to non-bird red cardinal sites,
I found 1 adult site at the 16th result. It was
created by Red Cardinal.

I found Red Cardinal to be a domain name...
[ http://redcardinal.com/ ]

But I cannot verify they are the same as the other.

[ http://redcardinal.com/home/ ]

So I did a search on Domain Surfer for red cardinal
[ http://domainsurfer.com/ssearch.cgi?dom=redcardinal&res=CARDINAL ]

Found a prior reference:
[ http://www.redcardinalroad.com/ ]

The Red Cardinal
[ http://www.theredcardinal.com/ ]

Hehehehe...
[ http://www.universeredcardinal.com/ ]

EVOLUTION 
OF THE SOUL
is by nature a shared journey since we are all ONE as holographic
manifestations of the ALL, the single, and only Monad.
 
Rev. Maria Lupita Martinez 
Dr. of Cosmocracy, P.P., A.M. Church of the Creator ® as one who has
heeded the calling to her own path as a now conscious journey of soul
evolution which all of us at some time eventually will, is ready to
share in aid to the unseen masters.
 

Ok, maybe I shouldn't laff, but that holographic stuff cracked me up.


But nothing about Red Cardinal web creation other
than that one site.


A search on google for
"red cardinal" popular search
[ ://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=%22red+cardinal%22+popular+search
]

Came up with a site of keyword rankings
[ http://www.active-domain.com/topkeywords.htm ]
where it was
162       15268         red cardinal

It beat out Shakira... hehe

"red cardinal" popular keyword
[ ://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=%22red+cardinal%22+popular+keyword
]

Shows up on this site:
[ http://www.net-watch.org/6.htm ]

They used the popularity of the keywords as spam?
[ http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:dHvn3q14qwcC:thing2b.hypermart.net/yigoto5000/1400.html+%22red+cardinal%22+popular+keyword&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
]

A newsgroup link asked the same question as you, no replies yet
[ http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22red+cardinal%22+-bird+-birds&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=9f88a9a2.0208221353.6e1c842f%40posting.google.com&rnum=1
]

They said Overture has it listed high up also:
[ http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ ]
Searches done in July 2002  
Count Search Term 
 280456  red cardinal 
 274  red cardinal bird 
 80  red cardinal grape 
 73  red cardinal mating 
 70  cardinal red bird picture 
 47  cardinal picture red 
 35  red crested cardinal 

Cardinal alone:
Searches done in July 2002  
Count Search Term 
 280456  red cardinal 
 48256  st louis cardinal 
 43022  st. louis cardinal 
 26308  cardinal 
 12629  arizona cardinal 
 5972  cardinal health 
 3326  saint louis cardinal 
 3265  cardinal bird 
 3111  cardinal baseball 
 2977  st. louis cardinal baseball 
 2972  ticket to the cardinal 
 2566  new jersey cardinal 
 2202  st louis cardinal baseball 
 1551  cardinal stritch 
 1513  st louis cardinal ticket 
 1476  st. louis cardinal ticket 


That search makes it seem like the St. Louis Cardinals
or the Arizona Cardinals. But those are plurals.


Red cardinal, test??
[ http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22red+cardinal%22+-bird&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=384fb236.5270547%40news.newsguy.com&rnum=4
]
c. 1999


A beanie baby:
<< WTB.>> "MAC" The Red Cardinal BEANIE!~
[ http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22red+cardinal%22+-bird&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=dCXL2.1490%24hv4.2308%40weber.videotron.net&rnum=9
]

So I thought, maybe it was a popular one?
I did a 'bay search for mac and beanie
[ http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?GetResult&SortProperty=MetaHighestPriceSort&query=mac+beanie&ht=1&combine=y&st=2
]
Not very popular, must not be it.


I looked for red cardinal on ebay also:
[ http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=red+cardinal&ht=1&itemtimedisp=1&st=2&SortProperty=MetaHighestPriceSort&SortOrder=d&BasicSearch=
]
Not enough results



So I went to Teoma.com (forgive me Google for I have... uh anyway)

I found...

Teraglyph Atlas of 15,000 Direct Mail Catalogs
[ http://www.teraglyph.com/catsearch/data2/fxx12661.htm ]

Red Cardinal, The 
1121 Horsham Road 
Ambler, PA 
800-568-2524 
215-628-2525 (in PA) 


Vivisimo wasn't much help either:
[ http://vivisimo.com/search?query=red+cardinal&v%3Asources=Fast%2CMSN%2CLooksmart
]


This winner is trying to exploit the popularity of
keywords:
Official Daniel Connor web site
... idol yahoo hotels sex ebay lyrics yahoo.com hotmail hotmail.com
red cardinal ... Pictures
Free blank search engines www.yahoo.com fantasy football weather porn
...
[ http://www.daniel-connor.com/ ]




Ok, I don't know... there is nothing definitive
and nothing that comes up beyond birds, baseball
and football with much frequency... so all I could
imagine, something in the news, etc caused a spike
of searches for "red cardinal" That's all I got.

-AI

It's also L'Oreal's Feria Multi-Faceted Shimmering Colour #67....which
reminds me....

#65.5,
V

I believe its the bird. A search on usenet in order of date returns
majority of the results on birds

Why the spike though? It is a spike isn't it?
Not a gradual thing right? Do you have archives
davidsar? Can you tell us when it became more
popular? Or how it fluctuated? Is there a movie
tie-in? Or music? Makeup? ;o)

-AI

Oh yah... I wonder if we are creating an artificial
spike today? hehehe... I can see a month from now,
in a newsgroup.

" There was an unusual spike of keyword activity for
  'Red Cardinal' right at the end of August. Anyone
  know why? "

then a month after that... etc.


-AI

I don't think this question could ever be answered with certainty. My
guess is that it has to do with the drinking game Cardinal (also known
as Cardinal Puff, and I have heard it referred to as Red Cardinal).

If someone asks you if you're a Cardinal, there is a specific answer
you give. If you say anything else, it means you've never played (and
survived) a full round of the game. You're not supposed to tell anyone
that doesn't know the rules how to play... which would drive a good
number of people to search the web for the rules.

The top secret rules are easy enough to find, however:

http://www.barmeister.com/cgi-bin/game.view.pl?game=139

As for the correct response to "Are you a Cardinal?", well... that's
another question. :)

Hope that helps, even if it's not the true reason.

-Iniaes-ga

The term doesn't appear in the Yahoo list of buzzwords
(buzz.yahoo.com), in the main list, under any of the subcategories, or
in the individual country top 10s.

A friend made a comment that maybe the
"red cardinal" was part of an internet
easter egg hunt or a scavenger hunt.
That would appropriately explain the
ambiguous peak. It would also explain
why a source cannot be found.

-AI