We're losing interest in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill just a few weeks after it became a big media topic — and long before we've even made a dent in cleaning up after this mess — if Internet search and discussion trends are to be believed.

An estimated 100 million gallons or more of oil have surged into the Gulf of Mexico. Spread by wind and underwater currents, the pollution has drifted toward coastal areas, coating wildlife and natural environments in thick layers of crude oil.

Yet on Twitter, Google, blogs and even YouTube, we're already wrapping up our collective discussion of the oil spill and how to repair its damage.

Twitter

On Twitter, the oil spill enjoyed a prolonged trending period thanks to @BPGlobalPR, a spoof account that snarkily lampooned the oil company's woes and became a viral hit.

This Trendistic chart, however, shows that while we might share a laugh over a corporate blunder, our attention span has about hit its limit when it comes to tweeting about the oil spill:





At its June 15 peak, the term "oil spill" was found in .17% of all tweets. Currently, only .02% to .05% of tweets contain that term.

YouTube

The good folks at TubeMogul were kind enough to pull together some data for us.

This month, people are uploading clips about the oil spill at a rate of 226 clips per day, on average. This might seem like a lot, but just last month, YouTube users were uploading around 1,021 oil spill videos each day. That's a decrease of nearly 78% month-over-month.

And we're not really interested in watching clips about the oil spill as much as we once were, either. Here's a chart showing views of videos from BP's official YouTube account:















Google

As a web search term, "oil spill" is on the decline. It first began to peak around April 30, when news surfaced that oil was beginning to wash ashore. The term reached its apex of popularity around May 27 and has since begun to fall.

Along with searches for this term, related news reports have plummeted. In other words, when public demand declines, media coverage follows suit.

Not surprisingly, however, Louisiana residents are still searching for "oil spill" on Google, as are the residents of many other Gulf Coast areas. New Orleans-area Google users are by far the largest geographical group still searching for information about this disaster.

Here, you can see the relation between web search and news articles:







Blogs

Finally, the tireless bloggers of the web are also getting tired of talking about the oil spill. Nielsen's BlogPulse shows that during the third week a June, .4% of all blog posts were about the oil spill.

Now that percentage hovers between .15% and .175%, a significant and disturbing slide.







What You Can Do

If you'd like to get more involved, check out Sloane Berrent's Six Ways to Help the Gulf Coast Today. Berrent is a New Orleans resident and social philanthropist, and she has the 411 on how to do your part in the cleanup process, from donating your money to volunteering your time.

And at the very least, we should all continue this conversation until the matter is resolved — not just until we get bored and move on to the next hot topic.

Are you and your friends still talking about the oil spill? Have you found any good ways to help with cleanup? Let us know in the comments.

[img credit: marinephotobank]