War is hell, but it's also a hot topic online. World War II made our Lycos 50 list this week, and it's not the only war people are hunting for.
We scanned last week's 50,000 top Lycos user queries for searches containing the words "war" or "revolution." The results, from the most-searched-for conflicts to the least, are below. (The percentages show each topic's position among all war searches. For instance, the Mexican Revolution's ranking of 1.0% means that of every hundred people who searched for a war, one searched for the Mexican Revolution.)
The full list:
23.0% World War II
19.2% Civil War
14.9% World War I
11.9% Vietnam War
6.0% Cold War
5.5% American Revolution
3.6% French Revolution
3.1% Korean War
2.1% War of 1812
1.5% Gulf War
1.4% Russian Revolution
1.0% Mexican Revolution
0.8% Trojan War
0.7% Spanish Civil War
0.7% Spanish-American War
0.6% French & Indian War
0.6% Six Day War
0.6% Mexican War
0.5% Cuban Revolution
0.4% Crimean War
0.4% Boer War
0.3% Punic War
0.3% Peloponnesian War
0.3% English Civil War
0.2% Hundred Years War
0.2% Yom Kippur War
0.2% Sexual Revolution
OK, so we slipped a little hubba-hubba in there at the end. Still, it has to mean something when the Peloponnesian War gets 50% more searches than the sexual revolution. Something positive? You decide.
Let's state a few possible errors up front. Many people refer to the Vietnam War as simply "Vietnam," so that war may actually be more popular than is shown here. And we've counted all queries for "the Civil War" as references to the American Civil War, so that war may be a bit less popular than is shown here.
The Civil War is, however, the only conflict we found getting lots of detailed searches. We found hundreds of queries for things like Civil War weapons, battles, flags, generals, music, and even Civil War medicine. "Civil War women" was by itself slightly more popular than the Six Day War.
World War I is surprisingly popular, given its fading position in 20th century history. We'd have expected to see the Vietnam War even higher. And the French Revolution gets more interest than the Korean War, which in turn gets twice as much interest as the Gulf War? Wow.
Some non-war comparisions: World War II was just a hair less popular than Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez. The American Revolution got about the same number of searches as wedding invitations. The Russian Revolution got the same interest as Billy Joel. And the Boer War got exactly as many searches as Wisconsin lottery.
Note: all search spellings and variations are included in each war's total; for instance, the Vietnam War rank includes searches for Viet Nam War and Vietnam War photos. This list reflects actual terms entered into our search engine by Lycos users during the week ending April 15. For a comprehensive view of sites devoted to war, we suggest our Lycos war directory. LycosZone also has an excellent site for kids titled (no kidding) The Wide World of War.
