Time for our annual look at the unadjusted top 50 search list. As you may know, each week we cut out general terms, computer terms, company names and sex stuff, and then add similar queries together to get the final weekly Lycos 50 list. What does the list look like before all that filtering?

Below is the answer: the plain top 50 terms as they came in for the week ending March 15, 2003.

Like last year, we've left in the naughty bits, since they really aren't that naughty. We've also diverged from our normal practice of not including company names, and we've left in the names of non-Internet companies. These companies don't present a question of whether we are favoring Lycos or its partners over the competition.

Once we've made those slight changes, this is the result. The term on top will really surprise you.

LYRICS
SEX
WEATHER
MUSIC
GAMES
DICTIONARY
MAPS
KAZAA
SONG LYRICS
PORN

JOBS
YELLOW PAGES
MP3
PICTURES
ADULT
WHITE PAGES
SEARCH ENGINES
CHAT
SEARCH
FREE PORN

CNN
DRIVING DIRECTIONS
FREE GAMES
TRANSLATOR
IRS
RECIPES
WALLPAPER
FREE MUSIC DOWNLOADS
JOKES
XXX

TRAVEL
KELLY BLUE BOOK
PORNO
HOME DEPOT
MUSIC LYRICS
MOVIES
REAL ESTATE
CLIP ART
PLAYBOY
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

PROM DRESSES
50 CENT
PEOPLE SEARCH
USED CARS
WAREZ
CARS
AMERICAN AIRLINES
ZIP CODES
EMINEM
TATU

That's right. Right now, the most-searched word on Lycos is not SEX but rather LYRICS. I blame 50 Cent; I mean, seriously, can you understand a single word he says? I can't. Luckily, Lycos Music has a lyrics search engine that can help you find out when 50 Cent wants a hug and when he's just mumbling about something else.

Another change from last year is that CNN appears higher up on the list, high enough to make it into the raw top 50. CNN searches last week were up 30 percent from a year ago. We can pretty much guarantee that CNN searches, and searches for all news organizations, are up even more than that in this current week.

Other changes include: Morpheus was #10 last year, but is gone this year, and KaZaA is much higher... Searches for SMS (short message service, or cell phone text messages) have declined and no longer make the raw top 50, though they are just below... Translator and Kelly Blue Book are both higher this year... The word free has dropped out of the raw top 50, though free games, free music, and free porn remain.

This is what the list looks like on a pretty regular basis, as any trend changes in these big generic terms take a long time to take hold. Besides news searches, NCAA tournament searches would make this list if we based it on the current week (as they did last year) and the hot music stars like 50 Cent and t.A.T.u. will gradually fade out over the next few weeks. To be replaced by Matrix searches, no doubt.