Longtime readers will remember our extensive coverage of last year's Contagious Media Showdown. An experiment in creating viral or contagious ideas, contestants competed over the course of a few weeks to see who could get the most traffic, links and buzz to specially created websites. The competition yielded Crying While Eating, Blogebrity, Ringtone Panties and a host of other new and different ideas. It was a fascinating experiment, and we looked at a lot of the sites in some depth (search our archives for the keyword “Contagious” and you'll find them all).

Now, the competition is back, this time under the patronage of Adriana Huffington and AOL, and I'm really not too sure what I think of that.

Actually I do, it makes me want to puke.

Only two prizes will be awarded this year - one simply for highest traffic, and one for the entry that is the most original in the eyes of a panel of celebrity judges, including those icons of viral media, John Cusack and Nora Ephron (I kid you not). What's more the winners get to - gasp - have dinner with The Huff herself.

So, no value for Technorati rank, no value to Alexa penetration, no actual measurement of buzz at all. Very naive, and in some ways a betrayal of everything that last year's competition set out to prove - that you didn't need big corporations or AOL to create an online phenomenon.

Oh, and here's the kicker - reading the fineprint, creators who come up with the “Next Big Thing” are signing over exclusive online rights to the idea to AOL until June 2007.

Somebody at Eyebeam.org just sold their soul to the Devil.