With students home from school and many workers taking time off, the week between Christmas and New Year's Day sees a scrambled Lycos 50.
Once you look at this same week last year, however, the scrambles make a lot of sense.
Lycos 50 stalwart marijuana finishes at #52 this week. That means it drops out of our rankings for the first time since? January 4, 2000. What is it about the week after Christmas that makes people not want to get high?
We've always thought that marijuana searches were somewhat driven by students, and this winter-vacation drop would seem to indicate that. Another clue: before this week, the last time marijuana fell below #30 was during the summer.
VIDEO GAME FRENZY: One more year-end trend continued in 2000. Video game searches skyrocket the week after Christmas as people search for information on the games they have just received as gifts.
Last year four games debuted the week after Christmas. This year we saw boosts for Final Fantasy (#9), Majora's Mask (#13), The Sims (#17), Tomb Raider (#20), and Diablo II (#28). Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (#37) not only debuts, it finishes higher than actual skateboarding (#41). In addition, the Sega Dreamcast console (#43) appears for the first time in over a year.
FIND THE FAT GUY: Santa Claus (#4) saw a huge jump in searches in the two days before Christmas thanks to interest in Santa Tracking. 58 percent of searches for Santa Claus last week were looking for the NORAD Santa Tracker website.
NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada aerospace defense organization, has "tracked" Santa's flight around the world for 46 years. What began as NORAD workers answering Christmas Eve phone calls from anxious kids has become a complex website in six languages.
OFFICE TRAGEDY: The shooting at Edgewater Technology (#26) outside of Boston is the last major news event of 2000 to make the Lycos 50. The ranking represents a combination of searches for Edgewater Technology (80%) and gunman Michael McDermott (20%). Nearly all searches specified one or the other, as opposed to a generic request such as office shooting.
Lycos is helping to gather contributions to The Edgewater Wakefield Memorial Fund.
SHORT SUBJECTS: Tax time again? The end of 2000 brings the return of the IRS (#21)? Free money time again? January also means another Publishers Clearing House (#33) sweepstakes? People who searched for the Christmas solar eclipse (#27) will be glad to know there is a lunar eclipse coming January 9? Eminem (#16) drops now that fans are assured that he is, in fact, not dead.
NEW THIS WEEK: The IRS, Edgewater Technology, the solar eclipse, Publishers Clearing House, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, Anna Kournikova, golf, Dreamcast, Napster clone Gnutella, pinup Alyssa Milano, Japanese cartoon Sailor Moon, kiddie punks Blink-182 departing retailer Montgomery Ward.
DROPOUTS: Holiday-related searches including Hanukkah, The Grinch, Barbie, cookie recipes, Elf Bowling, toys, and Christmas trees. Also: kinky Englishman Bradley "Brad the Cad" Chait, ancient seer Nostradamus, President-elect George W. Bush, Mexican volcano Popocatepetl, rockers Limp Bizkit, and, probably for a brief respite, marijuana.
BIGGEST RISE: New Year's Day, up 41 places to #6.
BIGGEST DROP: Embarrassed Londoner Claire Swire, down 35 places to #38.
FINALLY: Indecipherable reggae singer Shaggy (#56) has been floating just below the Lycos 50 for three weeks now, thanks to his new hit "It Wasn't Me." Due to his thick Jamaican patois, half of the searches for him specify Shaggy lyrics.
