As I mentioned at SES New York last week, I know what’s on everyone’s mind… How could Stacy Keibler not win Dancing with the Stars. Sure you have to give Jerry Rice props for the effort, but Drew Lachey? Check out the following chart that I showed during the Searchonomics session:

Since the show is partially a popularity contest (viewers can vote for their favorite dancers by text messaging or by phone), it’s not a stretch to link volume of searches with contestant popularity, right?
WRONG. All searches are not created equal. As shown below, if you examine where internet users went after searching for Stacy, you’ll find that the number one downstream site is the Official Women of Wrestling site.

Now if we examine the demographics of the top downstream sites, we see that they are visited primarily by 18-34 year-old males, not the most likely candidates to pick-up the phone and vote for thier favorite ballroom dancer.