Fascinating week on the Lycos 50, just fascinating. But where to begin? Let's start with the big game.
Think your chums were joking when they said Super Bowl commercials were getting more popular than the game? Last week that joke nearly came true. Web user searches for the game and the ads were, incredibly, neck and neck -- the final tally was just 51% to 49% in favor of the game.
Among the hot queries: Superbowl commercials, Super Bowl advertisements, and even Super Bowl XXXIV commercials. (It takes a lot of work to type in those Roman numerals.) No truth to the rumor that the NFL is cancelling next year's game in favor of 3 hours of ads.
Other key points from this week's Lycos 50:
ENTER THE DRAGON: Slipping in between the Super Bowl (#18) and the ads (#20) was the Chinese New Year. Year 4698 began on Saturday, February 5; this is a year of the dragon, considered an especially lucky year in which to be born. No truth to the rumor that the Chinese are changing the name to "Year of the Dot-Com."
WHAT A WIN WILL DO: Talk about a New Hampshire boost: presidential candidate John McCain almost made the Lycos 50 this week -- he finished at about #62. You probably heard that McCain has raised nearly a million bucks on his website since his 18-point New Hampshire primary victory over George W. Bush. McCain whipped the governor in web searches as well, getting more than twice as many queries as Bush.
MORE ON DOT-COMS: Last Thursday's launch of FreeScholarships.com led to a genuine frenzy online. In that half a week we got enough searches to push queries for free scholarships to #16. Seems the offer of $10,000 a day gets attention.
BABY, IT'S THE TAX MAN: April 15 is still two months away, but web users are flooding our search box with tax queries. The IRS is the most-searched-for topic, so popular we've given it its own separate spot (#4) on the Lycos 50.
The IRS aside, the single most popular query was tax forms, followed by terms like tax preparation, tax tables, and just plain taxes. We counted only terms related to tax filing time -- we ignored queries for tax policy, tax cuts and for commercial products like TurboTax and Quicken. If it keeps climbing at this rate for the next two months, the IRS is in line to topple the mighty Pokemon, an act which could be considered a form of tax relief.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH: February is Black History Month, and the queries are piling up -- the topic is #26 this week. The leading historical figure of interest seems to be Martin Luther King, Jr. -- now in his fifth week on the Lycos 50, thanks to earlier interest in MLK Day. Following Dr. King in queries are: Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, and Jackie Robinson.
THE PUNK: Rodent prognosticator Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow again this year, as he does 85% of the time. Result: six more weeks of winter, and thousands of searches for Groundhog Day (#9).
HOUSEKEEPING: This week we retire game platforms Nintendo and Playstation from the Lycos 50. We track commercial products as long as they seem to be rising or falling in a newsworthy way, but both of these have stopped moving. We'll add them to our list of emeritus terms, making way for more timely topics.
NEW THIS WEEK: Taxes, Groundhog Day, free scholarships, Chinese new year, Super Bowl ads, Black History Month, actress Yasmine Bleeth, singer Madonna, game Dino Crisis, sunny destination Hawaii, rapper DMX, and the America's Cup yacht competition..
DROPOUTS: Electronic game Tomb Raider, the White House, paintball, football, ex-wrassler Sable, game platforms Nintendo and Playstation, actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, diets, house plans, website Hamster Dance, and the Golden Globe awards.
BIGGEST RISE: The immortal bard, William Shakespeare, up 10 spots to #35. (Why?)
BIGGEST DROP: The NFL down 14 places to #29.
AND FINALLY: Aging pop star Madonna is back on the Lycos 50, thanks to heavy interest in her new remake of Don McLean's classic "American Pie." (It's a pretty weird-o version, frankly.) 10% of all Madonna searches specifically mentioned the song.
