Friday, at the time of writing, was the start of the Winter Olympics, so naturally Canada’s trending topics were SeaBus and Lonsdale Quay, not #Olympics. Apparently public transit is a bigger issue in Vancouver than a worldwide event. Nanaimo resident @sema4 cracked: “I love the fact that SeaBus and Lonsdale Quay are trending in Canada (site of forgotten-fishing-rod non-bomb), but 0lympics is not. :>”

Predictions were running wild for who would light the torch at B.C. Place – driving the name Trevor Linden to trending status. Penn State sports reporter Tom Copain (@tcopain) was betting against Linden: “Predictions on who lights the Flame at B.C. Place tonight. Safe Bet: Gretzky, Howe, Orr, Lemieux. Darkhorse: Trevor Linden.”

Day one of these winter Olympics was darkened by the tragic death of 21-year-old Georgian luge competitor, Nodar Kumaritashvili. Social media coverage was predictably empathetic. Mainstream media coverage was something else. Consider Vancouver Sun reporter @Gillianshaw’s comment: “As I’m writing a story about controversial death video of today’s tragic luge accident, CTV is rerunning, including in slow mo. Sad.” Or Calgary radio personality @Buzzbishop’s take: “CTV just showed the luge crash in slow motion. Twice. That really wasn’t necessary. At all. Ever.”

Also not a good idea was Google’s inadvertent breach of privacy this week. The search giant launched its new social network appropriately named “Buzz” that is integrated with its popular gMail service. Unfortunately Google failed to realize friends and acquaintances are separate beasts, and “ne’er the twain shall meet”. From ABC News: “As it introduced a new social hub, Google quickly learned that people’s most frequent e-mail contacts are not necessarily their best friends. Rather, they could be business associates, or even lovers, and the groups don’t necessarily mix well.” Indeed. Buzz 1.1 was quick to market before Buzz 1.0 was even fully rolled out.

For anyone looking to create real buzz – here’s a job opening – “Commander in Tweets”. From NowPublic.com: “US President Barrack Obama is looking to hire a Twitter user to his team. Obama’s Presidential campaign heavily involved the use of social media tools along with primary Internet tools and text messaging. Now there is an opening on his team for a Twitterer and social media expert.” I’d only take the gig if I could make endless fun of birdbrain George W – LOL, ROTFL.

Speaking of Presidents, Bill Clinton’s recent cardiac scare vaulted him to the top of Google trends this week. But after a little Roto-Rooter action, ole “Slick Willy” was ready to go back to work, as reported by The Independent: “Bill Clinton returned home early yesterday in ‘excellent health,’ according to his staff, after undergoing a procedure to open a heart artery that had become blocked and was causing him chest pains … Allan Schwartz, head of cardiology at the hospital, said yesterday that Mr Clinton could get back to work on Monday, describing his prognosis as ‘excellent’.”

While Bill was thinking about getting back to work, American tweeps were thinking about Valentines Day, making V-Day a trending topic. As hopeless romantic @dragonwrites wrote: “V-Day? How about a non-holiday related, non-religious, unspecific, entirely platonic and otherwise insignificant e-hug?? ”

On that note, I’m off to the store for a card and flowers.

As usual, send me your feedback on Twitter at @dblacombe or via e-mail doug@communicatto.com.

Doug Lacombe is president of communicatto.com, a digital marketing, investor and public relations agency.

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