Five months into the Lycos 50 project we can say one thing for sure: holidays are huge online.
This week's hot holiday is Valentine's Day, which debuts at #8. A little detail: about 16% of all Valentine's Day searches were for Valentine gifts; other hot topics included Valentine crafts (9%), Valentine cards (4.5%) and Valentine poems (3.5%).
Another 4% of searches were for Valentine's Day ideas. What sort of ideas we don't know, but it's clear that surfers are ready to make romance come the 14th.
Meanwhile that undeclared national holiday, Super Bowl Sunday, made an even bigger splash. Football fans pushed the Super Bowl from nowhere to #6 overall. The surge also moved the NFL up four spots to #15, and football up to #43. We also saw heavy queries for the Tennessee Titans and St. Louis Rams, which we included in the Super Bowl totals.
Other key items from this week's Lycos 50:
FORMALITIES: Get a load of prom dresses, now in its third week on the Lycos 50 -- and still rising! When this term debuted two weeks ago at #25 we figured it for a flash in the pan. Instead it turns out to be quite a big deal. Prom hairstyles also grew, though they're only about 1/10th as popular as dresses. Also getting scattered interest: prom themes and decorations.
GLOBES (FINALLY) ARRIVE: Last week we mentioned that the Golden Globe awards were nowhere to be found on our search logs. This week, after the ceremonies, a rush of user queries puts the awards at #24 on the Lycos 50. This seems to be a pattern: users do their searching after awards ceremonies, not before.
KING STILL STRONG: Two weeks after the MLK holiday, Martin Luther King is still going strong at #39. He dropped 32 spaces, it's true, but most holiday topics drop off our list completely the week after their holiday ends.
MORE HOLIDAY ACTION: Traffic doubled this week for both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, due (we presume) to the approach of Presidents Day. Neither prez came close to reaching the Lycos 50, however.
NASCAR RETURNS: This week Nascar is back in the Lycos 50 after a two-month hiatus. (Nascar last appeared at #47 on our December 1st list.) Racing fans seem to be surfing again in preparation for the season-opening "Bud Shootout" (no kidding) on February 13 at Daytona.
NEW THIS WEEK: Super Bowl, Valentine's Day, Golden Globes, football, Nascar, and actress Jennifer Love Hewitt.
DROPOUTS: Lunar eclipse, the American Music Awards, scholarships, Beanie Babies, actresses Carmen Electra and Shannon Elizabeth.
BIGGEST RISE: Actress/goofball Jenny McCarthy up 8 places to #34; prom dresses up 7 spots to #19.
BIGGEST DROP: Dr. Martin Luther King down 32 places to #39.
TOPPING OUT? Last week we noted that Mardi Gras and spring break were creeping up, but both fell back a bit this week. Perhaps Mardi Gras will turn out to be one holiday that flops online. About a third of the Mardi Gras queries we see are for photos and Mardi Gras flashers -- apparently young male surfers looking for snapshots of those va-va-voom parties.
