Well, the girl certainly knows how to draw attention to herself.
Pop icon Jennifer Lopez tops our list this week for the first time ever, thanks to her see-through purple dress at the Academy Awards (#2). Since the Oscar telecast showed her only from the shoulders up, the masses quickly ran to Lycos to try to find a picture -- any picture -- of Ms. Lopez's torso.
In fact, Jennifer Lopez's dress gets its own spot on the Lycos 50 this week, at #8. That is five places higher than her Grammy dress back in February 2000. I guess, feeling that she had not shown enough skin back then, she had to do herself one better this time.
In other Oscar results, Russell Crowe searches go up 170 percent this week, enough to put him at #59. Julia Roberts doesn't come near the Lycos 50, but her searches are up 150 percent. As far as movies go, searches for Best Picture winner Gladiator double, but searches for also-rans Crouching Tiger and Traffic only go up by about 50 percent each.
Lopez didn't have the only dress to make waves, of course; how can you write about the 2001 Oscars without mentioning Bjork? The Icelandic singer and cult figure saw searches go up 350 percent this week thanks to her bizarre swan ensemble. This proves once and for all that if you can't show nipple to get attention, show beak.
Lycos has a slide show with all the Oscar fashions here.
Incidentally, J. Lo is the fourth different item to be at #1 in the past four weeks.
WRESTLEMANIA: As expected, the WWF moves into the top ten on news of the purchase of WCW. WCW searches doubled again this week, pulling this secondary wrestling promotion in line up to the level of Christina Aguilera and Dale Earnhardt, roughly twenty spots below the Lycos 50.
KILLER UNIT: Randy Johnson (#21), the first baseball player to ever make the Lycos 50, is the force behind the hot Internet video of the moment. Last week a dove was killed instantaneously when it flew into the path of a 95-mile-an-hour fastball thrown by the imposing 6' 10" pitching star for the Arizona Diamondbacks. You can find the video at the bottom of this page.
Baseball itself rises to #18 as excitement mounts for opening day. In sad news, the horse dragging the Oakland A's bandwagon keeled over yesterday from too much weight.
MYSTERY SOLVED: A week after appearing as a mystery term, the new computer game Black and White (#41) makes its Lycos 50 debut. Searches for the game more than tripled last week. Black and White, like The Sims (#37), is a "god game." The goal in both games is to influence society and control the animated computer people through different actions and strategies.
With "god games" on the rise, high-violence video games seem to be in decline, at least temporarily. Half-Life Counter-Strike (#40) is the only violent game on the Lycos 50 right now, and only because of a recent update.
COUNT ON IT: We haven't said much about it, but this is the third week on the Lycos for the US Census. (#36) The Census Bureau has been releasing information gradually, which has kept interest high. We're getting a surprising number of searches asking specifically for USA Today's census website.
MARCH MONOTONY: As we expected, NCAA Basketball searches dropped each week of the tourney, as more and more people were out of the office pool. But we didn't quite expect them to drop this much; the term drops out of the Lycos 50 before the Final Four is even over. Do they not have the Internet in Tucson or Durham?
SHORT SUBJECTS: 20th century wars gain even more popularity this week as student searches continue; Adolf Hitler (#29) actually comes out higher than Eminem (#30)? April Fool's Day (#45) is much less popular this year than last, placing 28 spots lower than in 2000? Gnutella takes a surprising dive, down 16 places to #26... 'N Sync (#50) remains on the list this week by the thinnest of margins? Prom hairstyles nearly join prom dresses (#25) in the Lycos 50, finishing #52? Shed a tear, as web catchphrase All Your Base Are Belong To Us drops off the list after 5 weeks.
NEW THIS WEEK: Jennifer Lopez's dress, Randy Johnson, Daylight Savings Time, Black and White, Tupac Shakur, April Fool's Day, Limp Bizkit.
DROPOUTS: Moon landing hoax, NCAA basketball, interest rates, mad cow disease, Greek mythology, Destiny's Child, All Your Base Are Belong To Us.
BIGGEST RISE: Jennifer Lopez, up 30 place to #1.
BIGGEST DROP: Last week's #1, space station Mir, down 46 places to #47.
ONE YEAR AGO: Angelina Jolie debuted at #50 after a strangely incestuous appearance with her brother at the 2000 Oscars.
TOMORROW: Two hot websites, and one is a hoax.
