Genealogy is traditionally one of the most popular subjects on the Internet, but nobody was prepared for the colossal interest this week when the Ellis Island website went online. The site went live Tuesday evening and by week's end it had become the third topic to ever make its first Lycos 50 appearance at #1.
So many people were searching the Ellis Island site that 85 percent of users had to be turned away in the first few days. Because four out of every ten Americans is descended from an Ellis Island immigrant, the site is the mother lode for genealogy buffs. The website offers a database of immigrants including their names, ethnicity, last residence, date of arrival and age, ship of travel, and port of departure.
KING OF QUEENS: When our immigrant forefathers arrived at Ellis Island, they were greeted by the Statue of Liberty and this inscription:
"Gabba gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us."
OK, so that's not the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. Given the outpouring of interest this week in the death of Joey Ramone (#14), perhaps it should be. The frontman for the Ramones, one of the bands that invented punk rock, died this week of cancer and was the subject of numerous tributes.
Searches for the Ramones were up more than 20 times normal this week, so we combined searches for both Joey Ramone and the Ramones to get this ranking. Separately, they would have been #49 and #50.
'N SYNC SINKS: The astonishing popularity of the Ellis Island website obscures the other big story of the week, as one of our original topics drops off the list for the first time.
Boy band 'N Sync spent 87 weeks on the Lycos 50 but this week they finally fall out, barely, at #52. They are replaced by fellow boy band O-Town (#46), who ride the return of their TV series Making the Band into the Lycos 50 for the first time.
The departure of 'N Sync leaves eight original topics on the Lycos 50, each of which is still in the Top 20: Dragonball (#2), Britney Spears (#4), Tattoos (#7), Pokemon (#8), Pamela Anderson (#10), WWF (#12), Jennifer Lopez (#17), and Las Vegas (#19).
HAIR RAISING: Another topic which just barely drops off the list is prom dresses at #51, but prom hairstyles are hotter than ever at #21. This follows the pattern established last year where prom dresses debut early in the year and then drop off in late April, but prom hairstyles stay hot until prom time in mid-May.
MORE MARMALADE: The subject of Thursday's column, the new hit remake of "Lady Marmalade," saw searches grow another 50 percent to reach almost unheard of levels for a specific song. That one song got more searches last week than the bands Backstreet Boys, Metallica, or Lifehouse.
VICK'S THE PICK: Once again, NFL (#24) searches are strong thanks to interest in this past weekend's draft, but there are virtually no searches for the individual players involved. Top pick Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons received the same number of searches as surfer Kelly Slater and forgotten hair-metal band Whitesnake.
SHORT SUBJECTS: The Boston Marathon (#40) finishes 15 places lower than last year? Alan Greenspan sneezes, and mortgage rate (#25) searches jump? In its last week, the XFL received five percent as many searches as it did at its peak in early February? Playboy covergirl Brooke Burke (#30) is hotter than ever? Madonna (#31) goes up thanks to summer tour plans; 10 percent of Madonna searches mentioned her tour? Losing steam: Eminem (#36), Gnutella (#32), and Playstation 2 (#44) have each lost about one-third of their queries over the past three weeks.
NEW THIS WEEK: Ellis Island, Joey Ramone, mortgage rates, Boston Marathon, O-Town, Adolf Hitler.
DROPOUTS: Prom dresses, Easter Bunny, Limp Bizkit, 'N Sync, the Census, the spy plane incident.
BIGGEST RISE: The NFL, up 24 places to #24.
BIGGEST DROP: Easter, down 19 places to #20.
ONE YEAR AGO: Russian satellite photos of alleged alien-research site Area 51 debuted at #6.
TOMORROW: The next No Limit soldier.
