It isn't surprising that this year's Super Bowl (#3) was once again a big topic on the minds of Lycos users. But the specific searches this year were definitely out of the ordinary.

One of the most popular football-related searches wasn't football-related at all. It was for a commercial, but not one specially made for the Super Bowl. The Miller Lite girls, featured in a controversial ad fighting over "less filling... tastes great," are #31 on the Lycos 50 this week.

The young actresses who are enjoying fame thanks to the catfight-filled commercial are named Tonya Ballinger and Kitana Baker. They've come from out of nowhere; neither Ballinger nor Baker received more than a handful of searches on Lycos prior to the last two weeks. Baker's acting career consists of roles like "fantasy sorority girl" and "party-goer" while Ballinger seems to have never appeared in anything before this commercial.

Think blondes have more fun? Blonde Ballinger gets only one-third the searches received by the raven-haired Baker, and the Miller Lite commercial gets more than 20 times as many queries as those blonde Coors Light twins were getting at their peak.

Another interesting Super Bowl-related term on this week's list is Tampa Bay Buccaneers (#49). Each time we rank the Web's top teams, the Oakland Raiders show up in the top 10 while the Bucs finish far below. But in the week before the big game the Bucs fans came out of the woodwork, and Tampa had 50 percent more searches than the Raiders. The Bucs are the second NFL team to appear on the Lycos 50, after the 2002 New England Patriots, and the first to appear before they won the championship.

In fact, could Lycos users be predicting the outcome of Super Bowls? Last year, the Patriots registered 50 percent more searches than the St. Louis Rams in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, and then shocked the favored Rams on game day. This year, Tampa Bay's searches lead Oakland's by a similar margin, and the Bucs upset the favored Raiders.

Bucs coach Jon Gruden was the most popular Super Bowl personality this week, with more searches than any of the players (Raiders Rich Gannon and Jerry Rice are second and third).

Since our search week goes Sunday to Saturday, game day searches for the Super Bowl and Super Bowl commercials will be included on next week's list.

WORMLESS: There aren't many searches on this week's search logs for that Internet worm that took down a large part of the Web Saturday. Perhaps anyone who would have been searching for news on the worm couldn't search, thanks to the worm itself.

WE CALL IT: There are five musicians on this week's Lycos 50 who released their debut U.S. albums after the Lycos 50 began in 1999. All five are former subjects of Lycos 50 One to Watch articles: #21 t.A.T.u. (Nov. 2002), #26 Avril Lavigne (May 2002), #32 Good Charlotte (Nov. 2000), #42 Shakira (Oct. 2001 and Sep. 1999), and #43 50 Cent (Jan. 2003).

SHORT SUBJECTS: The Golden Globes (#12) finish with their highest rank ever... Here come love poems (#48), just in time for Valentine's Day (#17)... American Idol (#39), to nobody's surprise, regains its status as the Web's top reality show... Though below the Lycos 50, the Laci Peterson case is generating a good amount of Web interest.

NEW THIS WEEK: Golden Globes, Miller Lite girls, American Idol, NBA, 50 Cent, love poems, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

DROPOUTS: Nelly, first human clone, science fair projects, Bee Gees, The Bachelorette, Detroit Auto Show, American Music Awards.

AXIS OF EVIL WATCH: Iraq 84%, North Korea 16% (Iraq up 9%).

ONE YEAR AGO: O.J. Simpson makes the Lycos 50 for the first week ever, officially marking the end of the "Age of Seriousness" ushered in by September 11.

TOMORROW: In the midst of this summer's action blockbusters, is there room for an old-fashioned comedy about morons? Of course there is!