Oscars Golden Touch: Searches On Yahoo Spiking

With Hollywood’s golden night fast approaching, buzz is building in Yahoo! search for the 83rd annual Academy Awards set to air this Sunday, February 27, 2011. We’ll know soon enough if Yahoo! users are any better at predicting winners than Bing or Google Trends.

Yahoo! Oscars 2011 Hot Searches

According to Yahoo!:

• Searches for “when are the Oscars” are spiking on Yahoo!
• Searches on Yahoo! for “Oscars 2011” are up 1403%
• Oscar ballots are spiking on Yahoo! up 38%
• Searches for the award show are split between males and females
• States Searching for “Oscars” the most: California, Illinois, Texas, Washington and New Jersey
• Definitely for the older crowd: those under 24 only make up 16% of searches for “Oscars”

Yahoo! Top Searched Nominated Films

1. Black Swan
2. True Grit
3. 127 hours
4. The Kids Are Alright
5. Inception
6. The Fighter
7. Toy Story 3

But wait, aren’t there 3 more films nominated for Best Picture? Perhaps Yahoo users have no love for Zuck and “The Social Network”? What about the “King’s Speech” and “Winters Bone”? (I’ve asked Yahoo! to let me know where they fall into place in the remaining slots for the top 10 searches.)  Meanwhile, you can see how Y! users have voted to pick the the winners here, the current standings might surprise you compared to the order listed above.

Most Searched Nominated Actresses On Yahoo!

1. Natalie Portman
2. Nicole Kidman
3. Jennifer Lawrence
4. Annette Bening

Michelle Williams, from “Blue Valentine”, we’ll assume is #5 on the list. Does that mean she’s a sleeper nominee and a potential upset is on the way for Portman (who has 82% of votes in the Y! polls linked above).

Top Searched Nominated Actors On Yahoo!

1. Javier Bardem
2. James Franco
3. Colin Firth
4. Jeff Bridges

Poor Jesse Eisenberg (a.k.a Mark Zuckerberg) – left off this list of hot searches; looks like “The Social Network” might get snubbed again, according to Yahoo! searchers.

Hostess With The Most Searches

Yahoo! users searched for Oscar co-host Anne Hathaway more then all of the “Best Actress” nominees, and Hathway is currently the #1 most searched for Oscar hosts in recent history, along with her co-host and best actor nominee (127 Hours), James Franco, who is ranked #3, just behind Ellen DeGeneres.

Full coverage of the Oscars can be found at: https://oscars.movies.yahoo.com/