How does it feel to be one of the ugly people?
One look at the Lycos 50 shows you that beautiful people are popular online. Musicians, actresses, models, porn stars, and even just amateur Joes and Janes -- people like to look at good-looking people.
The beautiful people trend reached an interesting new stage in November with the arrival of amihotornot.com. This site, which allows people to anonymously post their own candid photos and be rated on a scale of 1 to 10, was an instant hit, drawing Lycos searches and doing its best to suck worker attention away from actual work. While the hype has settled down, searches for the site continue to grow; the site gets five times as many searches now as it did three months ago.
Of course Amihotornot.com is not just about the beautiful people. Part of the fun is the really ugly people you find. So, of course, why not eliminate the middleman? That's what Uglypeople.com seems to be about. No voting, no good looking people, just pictures of really ugly people. As searches for mullets demonstrate, people love to take pleasure in the less attractive members of society.
Uglypeople.com actually predates Amihotornot.com. We've seen searches for uglypeople.com since the site began in March 2000. But the searches began to grow significantly about four weeks ago, and have gone up 30 percent per week in that period. Last week Uglypeople.com received roughly as many searches as the band Green Day or the state of Alaska -- and only about four percent less than Amihotornot.com.
According to Uglypeople.com producer Kyrone, "We started trying to think up ideas for web sites, with one simple goal -- get lots of hits, and if possible, make people laugh. Unfortunately it does anger a few people... but as with
all unique/twisted humor, you certainly can't please everybody. We'll remove a picture right away if someone asks."
No discussion of ugly people would be complete without a mention of a television program that has been rising up the search logs lately: Betty La Fea. What? You've never heard of Betty La Fea? That's because it is the biggest new Spanish-language hit -- not only in the U.S., but all over Latin America.
Yo Soy Betty La Fea is the program's full title; translated, it means I am Betty the Ugly. Since Latin television is dominated by buxom blondes -- even more than American television -- it is quite a surprise to see that the top show in Latin America is a Colombian soap opera about a decidedly homely bookkeeper who works at a Bogotá modeling agency. She may be surrounded by more beautiful women, but Betty, played by the actress Ana María Orozco, is the star.
The show has become an international phenomeon, and is shown in the U.S. on the Spanish network Telemundo each night at eight. Searches for Betty La Fea have steadily gone up about 15 percent a week over the past three months. In fact, Betty La Fea received as many searches last week as America's top TV show, ER. She got 50 percent more searches as the Emmy-winning West Wing and twice as many searches as the popular sitcom That 70's Show.
TOMORROW: Lycos users rabidly search for a Napster replacement.
