Search Engines Predict Oscar Winners

Yesterday Wordtracker released search results of the films and actors up for Oscar awards tonight.

I am curious to see how accurately the search results predict the winners. I do realize that winners are chosen by the academy.  However, I see no better way to measure online popularity and I am very interested in seeing how closely this matches the actual results.

Wordtracker Chief Technical Officer Mike Mindel said, “Our figures give a measure of the internet buzz around each nomination. That might well be something that the members of the academy react to, even subconsciously.” “So even if our top scorers don’t lift the top prizes, at least they will know that they’re top as far as internet searchers go.”

Click HERE to read the Wordtracker blog for more information.

Below are the winners based on Word Tracker’s results:

Actor in a leading role
Will Smith 

Actor in a support role
Eddie Murphy 
Mark Wahlberg  (extremely close)

Actress in a leading role
Penelope Cruz 

Actress in a support role
Jennifer Hudson 

Best picture
Little Miss Sunshine