In February 2007, The Hot for Words trademark was registered by Charles T. Como, a creator of internet sites for music bands, and the YouTube account Hotforwords was registered. The first video posted was "Intro to Philology ;-)" on March 7, 2007.[5] Orlova said this was at a time when "everybody was uploading cleavage."[6]
The theme of Orlova's website and YouTube videos, which begin with the tagline "Intelligence is Sexy," is tracing the origins of English words. Some of her entries focus on everyday words such as "irony" and "OK," while others address lengthy and rarely used words such as "floccinaucinihilipilification" and "antidisestablishmentarianism." Some entries also address idioms, including "let the cat out of the bag," "dressed to the nines," and "three sheets to the wind," or new words like the verb "to google."
Orlova in January 2010
Orlova has been voted "World's #1 Sexiest Geek" in Wired Magazine's "Sexy Geek of the Year Contest". G4 TV has listed Orlova among its "Hot Women of the Net" on several occasions, and Cosmopolitan Magazine has identified her as the "most subscribed to YouTube guru."[7] Orlova appeared on the cover of the November 2009 issue of the wine, beer and spirits publication Mutineer Magazine,[8] applying her word explanations to common beverage words. Orlova has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor,[9] and was profiled on "The Medium," an Internet feature of The New York Times Magazine.[10] In June 2008, Orlova and radio personality Danny Bonaduce signed endorsement contracts with coComment.[11]
The Moscow Times said "Marina exploits her blonde-bombshell looks to the maximum: She appears in her two-minute clips scantily clad, pouting and making doe eyes. This is surely the main factor in her success. However, while the number of scantily clad girls on the Internet is limitless, not all of them put so much intellectual effort into their success."[12]
In an interview, Orlova explained how she got viewers interested in words
