This week, Easter becomes the latest holiday to conquer Dragonball (#3) and ascend to the top spot of the Lycos 50. The Easter Bunny even gets on the list by himself, at #37.
Neither Easter nor Valentine's Day could top Pokemon (#7) during 2000, but both holidays made it to #1 this year.
Right below Easter, however, is the dark and foreboding IRS at #2, with taxes right behind at #4. If combined, the two subjects would be on top.
QUIET RIOT: Two news stories received a number of searches last week, although they did not make the Lycos 50. The first is the Cincinnati riots. Searches for the Queen City more than doubled this week, and searches for the Cincinnati Enquirer tripled. Cincinnati proved as difficult to spell as it was to calm: Lycos users also looked for Cincinatti and Cincinnatti.
The other story that received a lot of searches this week was a bit less covered by major news sources: the Seaside Cheerleaders. While goofing around at a playground, the cheerleaders from this Oregon high school ended up taking a few pictures of themselves in some, shall we say, adult poses. As predicted by the Claire Swire corollary to Murphy's Law, these pictures ended up on the Internet. It's a pretty good laugh, but since the cheerleaders are underage, I recommend not searching for these photos unless you want the FBI to go cleaning out your hard drive.
PUSSYFOOTING AROUND: Searches for Josie and the Pussycats were up another 50 percent this week, but that wasn't enough to get the movie into the Lycos 50. The film actually seems to have flopped at the box office, making only $7.2 million so far and finishing behind even Joe Dirt in weekend gross receipts. Having seen the movie, I can say that the satire may be aiming above the heads of film's target teen audience, but I thought it was great.
Online, Josie is still the winner among current movies, with four times as many searches as Joe Dirt and three times as many as Bridget Jones' Diary. Rachael Leigh Cook (Josie) is the hottest Pussycat, with 51 percent of Pussycat searches, compared to 38 percent for Tara Reid (Melody) and 11 percent for Rosario Dawson (Valerie). Nearly half of searches misspelled Cook's name Rachel Leigh or Rachael Lee.
SHORT SUBJECTS: As predicted last week, Playboy cover model Brooke Burke arrives in the Lycos 50 at #48... Computer game Black and White (#14) keeps getting hotter and hotter? Searches for predictions and information on this week's draft put the NFL (#48) back on the list? searches for Napster alternatives are now half of what they were five weeks ago, and searches for Napster clones are down two-thirds.
NEW THIS WEEK: Easter Bunny, Christina Aguilera, computer game Diablo II, NFL, Brooke Burke.
DROPOUTS: The Masters, Passover, Foot and Mouth Disease, Adolf Hitler, April Fool's Day.
BIGGEST RISE: Prom hairstyles (#28) and Black and White (#14), each up seven places.
BIGGEST DROP: Chinese spy plane incident, down 21 places to #50.
ONE YEAR AGO: Elian Gonzalez debuted at #37 on the Lycos 50, and Gnutella made its first ever appearance at #27.
