THE INTERNET Bosley has arrived as 'it' girl of searches

Bosley even bumped Paris Hilton out of one search engine's No. 1 spot.
By LINDA M. LINONIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
Big Brother is watching to see if you're sneaking a peek. Search engines such as Google, Lycos, Netscape and Yahoo keep track of people's queries by listing the top searches on their Web sites.
There's still buzz in cyberspace about Catherine Bosley, the former WKBN news anchor who bared all in a wet T-shirt contest in Key West, Fla., nearly a year ago. The video of what Bosley has called a "celebration of life" after surviving both heart and lung ailments surfaced on the Internet and led to her resignation.
At No. 1
Bosley bumped Paris Hilton out of the No. 1 spot on the Lycos 50 top searches for the week ending Jan. 24. Bosley entered the list at number 13 for the week ending Jan. 17 and has made the list for two weeks. Lycos lists the top 50 searches; the top 10 for the week of Jan. 24 also includes singer Britney Spears, NFL, pin-ups Brooke Burke and Pamela Anderson, Dragonball, IRS and Atkins Diet. Also in the Lycos 50 were Mars Rover, Martin Luther King, NASA, Howard Dean, the Bible, World War II, Clay Aiken, Harry Potter and prom dresses.
Google Zeitgeist lists the top gaining queries for the week ending Jan. 19 and lists Bosley in the No. 4 spot. Also in the Google top 10 for that week are Jennifer Aniston, Martin Luther King, Spalding Gray, American Idol, Iowa Caucus, Carmine Caridi, Carolina Panthers, Jack Trawick and Scarlett Johansson.
Not mentioned
Google updated its list Jan. 29 and noted the top searches for the week ending Jan. 26. Bosley was no longer mentioned. Other top searches were Chinese New Year, Chinese Zodiac, Captain Kangaroo and State of the Union.
Netscape, in its Hot 20 Searches for Jan. 27, didn't mention Bosley. The IRS, Dr. Phil, school closings, Montel Williams, My Doom e-mail virus, Weight Watchers, NASA and the South Beach Diet were among most popular sites.
Yahoo! Buzz Index reflects data collected from search log files and counts the number of people searching for specific subjects. Those listed in the Buzz Index are subjects with the greatest percentage increase from one day to the next. Yahoo! also lists overall top searches, and then breaks interests into specific interest areas such as music and sports. Other sites use similar tracking methods; updates are on different time frames. Sites also may note where the subject was previously in the search list.
ln a check Jan. 29, the Yahoo! most-viewed sites included Golden Globes, IRS, Super Bowl, Jennifer Lopez and Atkins Diet. Bosley wasn't named.
From reporter to subject
Bosley, once someone who used to report the news, now finds herself the subject of it. She's made some of the rounds in person, been the subject of various talk shows and in cyberspace.
On the Web site for "Inside Edition," search and find the show titled "Anchor Away" that aired Jan. 20. The synopsis, in part, reads "it's a good idea to think before you act as local Ohio anchor was reminded of that after she learned the consequences of getting wild at a Florida bar." 'Inside Edition' reports on the furor of revealing pictures that caused her to leave her job."
Diane Sawyer interviewed Bosley on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I got caught up in the moment, and that was the problem," is a quote attributed to Bosley on the "Good Morning America" Web site. The site refers to Bosley's stripping as a "sexy vacation stunt" and mentions the removal of her top and offers no other information about what else came off.
An essay by Eric Burns, host of Fox News Watch, is posted on the program's Web site. The tongue-in-cheek commentary, which also includes a poem, points out that someone who stood before the camera should be aware of the potential of any less-than-flattering video or pictures.
Bosley also garnered enough attention to make the Top 10 List on the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. The late-night talk show host offered Top 10 Good Things About Having a Stripper as a News Anchor on Jan. 23. It's also posted on the Letterman Web site.
It might take weeks, maybe longer, to visit and read all the sites that pop up on the computer screen when you search for "Catherine Bosley." There are literally thousands, and some have nothing to do with the former newscaster. Some sites may take you where you really don't want to go.
It seems that some people want to spend their time looking at the bare assets of one woman whose choice cost her her job. But people with time on their hands and a keyboard under them will search for all kinds of things. In one of its reports on searches, Lycos notes that rhubarb and rhubarb recipes were up 67 percent from the year before.
Who could predict that, like Bosley, rhubarb was headed for 15 minutes of Internet fame?