Put together two of the web's favorite topics -- government conspiracy and UFOs -- and you get this week's new top 10 term: Area 51 photos.
Area 51, as you may know, is a top-secret Air Force testing ground in Nevada. The base has become an obsession with a few conspiracy theorists who think that Uncle Sam is somehow hiding alien aircraft there.
Enter Aerial Images Inc., a company which last week posted Russian satellite photos of Area 51 on its website. Web users went ape for the photos, crashing the Aerial Images servers -- and giving us a new #6 on the Lycos 50! (Note: that site can still be hard to get into this week.)
Other key points from this week's list:
HOLIDAY HOTTIES: Easter made a strong move in the last week before the holiday, trouncing Dragonball and Britney Spears to claim the #2 spot. Passover also made our list, debuting at #19.
Culinary sidelight: 4% of all Easter queries were for Easter recipes; 18% of all Passover queries were for Passover recipes. Martha Stewart (#46) also returns to our list, her first appearance since Christmas. The message seems clear: when the holidays approach, people search for Martha.
TRAGEDY OBSERVED: April 20th was the first anniversary of the Columbine High shootings, and the event moved up to #47 this week. The same day was the anniversary for the Oklahoma City bombings and the Branch Davidian seige in Waco, Texas, but neither raised as much interest as Columbine High: the Oklahoma City memorial got about one-fourth as many searches as Columbine, and Waco-related terms about one-ninth.
ON THE RUN: The Boston Marathon was surprisingly popular, topping longtime hotties Sailor Moon and Christina Aguilera to finish at #25. The race itself seems more important to surfers than who actually wins: neither the male or female champions, Elijah Lagat and Catherine Ndereba, were among our top 50,000 queries.
HAS THE PROM PEAKED? Looks like prom frenzy is finally fading. Queries for prom dresses, now in their 15th week on the Lycos 50, dropped from #18 to #35. Prom hairstyles, #45 last week, fell from the list entirely.
SHORT SUBJECTS: Will Pokemon never fade? Searches on the #1 topic were actually up 20% last week... Ana Nova, the freaky virtual broadcaster, debuts at a respectable #39... rapper Tupac Shakur drops off our list after a 15-week run... Hitler and the Holocaust both drop from the list, though World War II remains... after Saturday's raid, it's no surpise that Elian Gonzales is up to #20... and searches for Janet Reno have risen 250% since April 1. We expect to see Elian even higher in this coming week.
NEW THIS WEEK: Area 51 photos, Passover, the Boston Marathon, Ana Nova, Martha Stewart, Columbine High, pinup Carmen Electra, pro wrassling star Trish Stratus.
DROPOUTS: Tupac Shakur, rap lyrics, Gnutella, the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler, prom hairstyles, Titanic, spring break.
BIGGEST RISE: Elian Gonzalez, up 16 spots to #20.
BIGGEST DROP: Capital punishment, down 20 spots to #45.
FINAL FACTOID: Chrysler's new retro-mobile, the PT Cruiser, is getting lots of action on our search logs: searches are up almost 500% since mid-February. Not bad for a car that won't even hit the streets until this fall.
