21
2007
American Idol – Game On!
We’re down to eleven contestants and its game-on for our analysis of contestant search volume. The chart below shows search volume for the top eight contestants for the week ending 3/17/07 (Gina Glocksen, Jordin Sparks and Stephanie Edwards didn’t make the chart this week due to insufficient volume, although based on Jordin’s blockbuster performance last night she’s sure to enter the chart next week).
Vocal powerhouse Lakisha Jones took an early lead in late Feb, dwarfing other viable contestants, however for this last week, she’s trailing behind a number of singers including Haley Scarnato and the Michael Jacksonesque Sanjaya Malakar.
To prove the need to adjust search term volume for, what we call in the Hitwise Research Group, the Stacy Keibler Correction Coefficient, look at the top eight contestants when they’re plotted against searches for Antonella Barba (check out our analysis of the Antonella effect on TIME.com here). Against the recently eliminated Antonella, the rest of the contestants become noise on the X axis.
It’s still very early in the season, check back to see our predictions as we get closer to the finale.
American Idol: Game On
Online researcher Hitwise is tracking searches for the names of American Idol contestants, but searches don’t always equate with votes, as the Stacy Keibler Correction Coefficient makes clear.
I admit it, I watch Idol. I don’t think that search will show who wins Idol this year, however. Maybe I’ll be wrong, but from the show itself (not the hype, especially with the Sanjaya controversy), there’s already a clear winner. I know the information here is already a bit dated (Haley is gone, for example), but I’d be interested in seeing if my personal prediction comes true as well.