Search engine and Internet portal provider LYCOS said today online interest in American Idol contestant Antonella Barba has soared 47,400% over past 72 hours following the news that nude photos of her were posted on the Internet.
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The information comes from the LYCOS 50, its ranking of the 50 most popular Internet search results for the week ending Feb. 24, 2007.
Two weeks into the early elimination rounds on the sixth season of “American Idol,” contestant Antonella Barba jumped far ahead of all other contestants in Web search activity following news headlines that some topless photos of Barba had been released on the internet, the company said in a statement.
Once news of the photos surfaced, Web users scoured the internet, resulting in a 47,000% jump in online interest for Barba over the past 72 hours. Former Vice President Al Gore’s Oscar win for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth only netted him a paltry 800% increase. But it was good enough to put him in a familiar spot: Second place.
The company said, People magazine reported that while “numerous sexy photos don’t reveal Barba completely in the nude, there are other photos that are not as tame and could be enough to get her booted from the show.”