Figuring out who will hit it big on American Idol is not an exact science. However, a bit of sleuthing goes a long way.

Over the years, I’ve found that Google searches on a contestant’s name, in quotes, with the word “Idol” next to it (not in quotes) will provide a fair look at his or her standing in the public eye.

This is for good or for bad. For example, the most infamous of our contestants yet in Season 7 is probably Milo Turk, the “No Sex Allowed” guy.

Brilliant song, by the way. I am totally going to learn the words and play it on a video here. Some day.

Google says Turk has 72,800 pages associated with his name and the term “Idol” on the Web. That is vastly more than Colton Swon (8,740 pages), Chris Watson (7,970 pages), Michael Johns (6,910 pages), Joey Catalano (3,210 pages), Tetian Ostapowych (2,640 pages), Samantha Musa (2,430 pages), Pia Easley (1,930 pages) and London Weidberg (1,300 pages).

On the other hand, there are a handful of singers I’ve found so far with more than 10,000 pages associated with them already on Google. For example, boy wonder David Archuleta — whose fan group is already named (Arch Angels) — has 11,000 pages available from Google associated with his Idol efforts.

Much of the time, these represent news stories or blog posts, fan boards or self-promotional sites. Nevertheless, one’s depth on Google is one way to measure a contestant’s buzz.

Brooke White has managed 19,000 pages associated with her Idol dream.

But from here, the numbers rise significantly.

Carly Smithson and Carly Hennessy (same person) produce about 39,500 pages from a Google search associated with Idol. A search for Houston’s Kady Malloy produces about 41,700 pages.

On the other hand, Alabama’s Cardin McKinney has 41,900 Idol pages associated with her name, and she hasn’t been shown on TV yet. That’s some serious buzz.

However, nobody even comes close to Kristy Lee Cook on the Google-o-meter. A search on her name, in quotes (which means one is searching exclusively for that string, in full), plus the term “Idol”, netted more than 550,000 pages.

To be fair, the Week 1 crew has a leg up on the Week 2 singers. It doesn’t explain Cardin’s Google strength so far, but perhaps she’ll blow up as big as Kristy Lee Cook.

Truth is, this might not mean a hill of beans, but let’s keep an eye on this for the season to see if any trends come out of it.