Yahoo! Buzz Index presents the day's top 20 searches overall, and in a number of categories, e.g. actors. A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.

The chart shows current rank, icons for the change in rank over previous day, previous rank position, number of days on chart, score, and score change. A score is the percentage of users searching for that subject on a given day.