I think it's more than just an Internet popularity contest. First, this is an international contest and the internet is just one of the polling vehicles. Second, the announcement ceremony has some major stars lined up, including Sir Ben Kingley and Neil Armstrong (who's become VERY reclusive over the years).

Although it would be nice to know: Who's behind all this? Where is the money coming from? And will some of the money collected be used to renovate and/or maintain the candidate sites? (And most importantly, am I going to start getting lots of spam in my inbox from these folks?)