Top Chef is nearing the end of yet another absolutely addictive season and the competition is getting hotter than the Kenmore ranges used by the chefs.

While catching up on some recent episodes on my DVR, the search geek in me started thinking about a correlation between a chef’s performance on the show and the interest they are generating on the search engines.

Unlike shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef winners are decided by the panel of judges instead of audience votes.  But are the judges thinking along the same lines as the rest of America?  Is the most searched chef really the Top Chef? I took a look at Google Insights for Search to understand the trends.

Angelo, who had been quite popular early on in the competition has seen his interest simmer down (pun intended) since the first few weeks of competition.  Maybe viewers lost interest due to his abrasive personality.

Kelly has seen her chicken stock rise over the course of August.  Maybe it’s her skills or maybe it’s because she’s just so darn cute.

If Google Insights can predict a winner, Kelly might be our next Top Chef.  Let’s see if Padma and company agree in the upcoming weeks.

As they say in TV-land, stay tuned.

8 Minute Abs. Tae Bo. Pilates.

Exercise crazes come and go, but the P90x seems to be holding its ground.  The program has been around since 2004, but Google Insights for Search shows an increase in demand over the past year.

After a surge in search volume during January 2010, interest in the make-me-huge-in-90-days videos has plateaued (undoubtedly tied to ambitious New Year’s resolutions).  Will this exercise craze remain strong for the next few years or is it just another fad?

It seems like every few years Americans adopt and overuse some new word. Some go out of style, while others stick around — probably because what they refer to doesn’t go away and the word seems impossible to replace (e.g. “hippie”). The current overused term is “hipster.” It seems to have replaced “metrosexual,” which has mercifully gone away.

We’re not the only ones tired of “hipster.” Gawker recently polled its users in an attempt to replace it with something more palatable. The results were a bit disappointing: The plurality vote came in at only 34%, for “fauxhemian.”

Google Trends suggests that “hipster” has neared its peak and has nowhere to go but down:

Google Insights identifies these hipster-related blogs as Rising searchers:

Unhappy Hipsters

Hipster Puppies

It’s also worth noting America’s much greater interest in nerds.