The death of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt takes over this week's Lycos 50, as auto racing fans searched the web for information about his death and reminders about his life.
Earnhardt received more than three times as many searches as Dragonball (#3) and becomes only the second search term to ever debut at #1 on the Lycos 50. (Can you guess the first? The answer is below.)
NASCAR zooms up to the #2 slot. The Daytona 500, which didn't make the list last year, is #10. Sterling Marlin, the driver who was fighting Earnhardt for position when The Intimidator crashed (and is receiving death threats because of it) debuts at #49.
Fan searches ranged from Dale Earnhardt memorial to Dale Earnhardt memorabilia, as well as the more gruesome Dale Earnhardt crash video and Dale Earnhardt autopsy. We also received many searches for Dale's racing team, Richard Childress Racing, as well as the team he owned, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, which ran three drivers including Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Daytona winner Michael Waltrip. Earnhardt Jr. saw searches rise 1300 percent this week; Waltrip searches were up an astonishing 3400 percent.
Earnhardt fans have flooded the web with tribute sites: you can check out a couple of them here and here.
GRAMMY ROUNDUP: The less-controversial-than-expected Grammy Awards show up at #7 this week. Eminem gets a nice bump from his Grammy appearance, up seven spots to #16, though less than two percent of his searches were for his duet with Elton John. Our Lycos 50 Grammy picks didn't really turn out too well, and Steely Dan were almost comatose when they accepted the Best Album award. Steely Dan searches did go up 260 percent this week. The good news is, maybe some of the younger generation will discover the band now; the bad news is, they may buy Two Against Nature instead of a really worthwhile record like Pretzel Logic.
Nobody created a fashion furor the way Jennifer Lopez did last year, when her dress kept its own spot on the Lycos 50 for three weeks. This year's "least dressed" award went to Toni Braxton, whose searches rose 450 percent after she wore a dress which seemed to be made out of window drapes.
XFL REDUX: XFL (#21) ratings continue to plummet but the league actually goes up on the Lycos 50 this week thanks to interest in the XFL cheerleaders. They get their own place on the list for the first time, at #42. 59 percent of searches for the XFL asked for the cheerleaders specifically.
LAUNCH ALL 'ZIG': What in the world is All Your Base Are Belong To Us (#46)? Tomorrow the Lycos 50 takes a look at the strangest query to ever make our list.
SHORT SUBJECTS: Mardi Gras (#14) searches get serious, and Lycos has all kinds of Mardi Gras photos and chats. This article just says no? Interest in Survivor (#32) continues to falter online, while Temptation Island (#24) bounces back ahead of its reality counterpart thanks to interest in the final show this Wednesday? High school history classes seem to have gotten around to covering World War II (#45)? A Rhode Island factory worker won $93.5 million in this week's Powerball (#36) drawing? The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue debuts at #30; check out today's bonus list to see how the models do individually.
NEW THIS WEEK: Dale Earnhardt, Grammy Awards, Daytona 500, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Powerball lottery, XFL cheerleaders, Digimon, World War II, All Your Base Are Belong To Us, Carmen Electra, Sterling Marlin.
DROPOUTS: Valentine's Day, Academy Awards, Westminster Dog Show, Anna Kournikova virus, NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft, Abraham Lincoln, anime Outlaw Star, Marc Rich pardon scandal, mortgage rates, NBA, Cruise-Kidman divorce.
BIGGEST RISE: Mardi Gras, up 25 places to #14.
BIGGEST DROP: Love poems, down 34 places to #48 -- though like last year, love poems remain even after Valentine's Day departs.
ONE YEAR AGO: America's sweetheart Tonya Harding was #49 on the Lycos 50 after clobbering her boyfriend with a hubcap.
QUIZ ANSWER: Hurricane Floyd debuted at #1 on September 21, 1999. Check out the highest debuts on this bonus list.
