Do you have 'blogebrity' status?

Two weeks ago, if you "Googled" the term "blogebrity," you would have received zero results. Today you'll get more than 80,000.

No one is more surprised by this phenomenon than Southern California-based Kyle Bunch and Jeremy Hermanns, who entered their idea for Blogebrity.com--a Web site celebrating the growing cachet (and ego) of bloggers--into Eyebeam's "Contagious Media Showdown"competition. Eyebeam, a New York-based nonprofit studying new technologies and media arts, launched the competing sites on May 19.

Blogebrity.com, which was a sort of trial balloon for a future Blogebrity print magazine, features an A-list of blogging celebrities as well as B- and C-lists of rising stars. The two founders were immediately inundated with feedback, particularly after the site appeared on Slashdot. Many wrote Blogebrity to offer suggestions and complaints about the various lists and the overall site. Some bloggers have proudly posted their list rankings, while others ridiculed the site and asked what's next, "Bloggywood Squares?"

Despite the range in opinion, Bunch, 26, and Hermanns, 28, said the feedback has illustrated a fierce appetite in the "blogosphere," for information about bloggers. The two University of Southern California grads, both of whom work for interactive ad agencies, plan to continue the site offering insight on blogger personalities and their rise to fame. "Behind every blog there is this person," Bunch said, adding that part of their journalistic mission is to help readers understand what motivates bloggers.

"Whatever this little thing becomes, it's going to be dedicated to making sure blogging continues to grow," they blogged Wednesday, "and that the stars of the show are the ones who started it all, not someone plugging their crap show on a friendster pseudo-blog."