Dream Home
HGTV.Com Up 760%
Looking for an escape this winter? Thanks to the annual HGTV Dream Home Giveaway web users were desperate to check out the home, take a virtual tour and enter the sweepstakes. Every year HGTV builds and decorates a huge house in an incredibly beautiful area. After 6 weeks, they give it away. Just don't get too attached to the idea you'll actually live in the 2006 grand prize, a 5,700-square-foot traditional-style mountain home perched atop a ridge in the Blue Ridge foothills. Even if you're lucky enough to have the winning entry out of the more than 40 million expected to pour in between now and the Feb. 17 deadline, you might find taking up residence is prohibitively expensive.

Last year's dream home winner, Don Cruz, moved from suburban Chicago to Tyler, Texas, to take possession of his dream home, a lakefront property valued at $1.5 million, plus furnishings. But taxes on his winnings are expected to total more than $650,000, and Cruz can't afford it.

Viral Video
Adam & Andrew Emo Kid Up 290%
The latest irreverent video being passed around the web is Adam & Andrew and the Emo Kid song. The song is a bit R-rated, so be aware. The two creators behind the viral video are trying to launch their album from the site.
Adam & Andrew

Dancing with the Stars
Lisa Rinna Up 265%
Our favorite reality show of the winter season is already ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Lisa Rinna, who was asked to do the show last season, but turned it down (hello Kelly Monaco), jumped at the chance this season. Already, Rinna looks like a possible favorite. Her ballroom dance partner is the obnoxious Louis van Amstel who tries to make eyes with the camera at every chance he can get. Course, van Amstel must be thrilled with his partner this season after his early boot with reality pseudo-star Trista - the Bachelorette - Stutter. But nothing can top what Howard Stern said about Rinna and the show on his new satellite radio show on Sirius, "What did Lisa Rinna put in her lips?" he demanded. "They look like two roast beef flaps."

EastEnders
Nigel Harman Up 225%
Fans of the wildly popular BBC soap EastEnders were surprised when Nigel Harman left the series at the end of this year. EastEnders is the most-watched show in Britain, but fans were distraught when the wildly popular womanizing character Harman played left the series. However Harman has taken to the London stage, replacing Ewan McGregor as Sky Masterson in the production of Guys and Dolls. Harman recently compared working on EastEnders, which he calls "smell-the-fart acting," where everything is internal and it's all a drama and weighty" with acting in Guys and Dolls, "which is just get on with it."

Check out the hottest search topics for the week ending January 7, 2006:

1. HGTV.Com Up 760%
2. Pet Health Up 755%
3. Study Abroad Up 540%
4. Martin Luther King Up 320%
5. Yoga Up 307%
6. Adam & Andrew - Emo Kid Up 290%
7. Lisa Rinna Up 265%
8. Nigel Harman Up 225%
9. Prom Hairstyles Up 205%
10. Chinese New Year Up 162%

Dean Tsouvalas can be reached at dean.tsouvalas@lycos-inc.com