Even in the brave new world of cyberspace everyone still loves mom. This week searches for Mother's Day put the holiday at #2 on the Lycos 50 -- right behind that other childhood fascination, Pokemon.
And searches for flowers nearly doubled last week, as an entire nation of wired sons and daughters went looking for mom's dozen roses. The last-minute rush pushed flowers from off the charts to #5 on the Lycos 50. (We've included "florist" and "florists" in that count.) All in all, a very big week for mom.
Other key points from this week's list:
LOTTO FEVER: Last week's $360 million jackpot generated a flood of queries for the seven-state lottery known as The Big Game. It moves up 10 places to #6. The drawing produced two winners, one of whom picked up his ticket while buying a hot dog.
SWASHBUCKLE FEVER: Wow! We knew that Gladiator was the hottest thing at the box office -- but who knew it would be so hot online? The sword-swinging Roman epic hits #14 this week, jumping past favorite American pastimes baseball (#17), dope (#15), and Elian Gonzalez (#19).
Not only that, star Russell Crowe makes his Lycos 50 debut at #48 -- and he's never come close to making our list before. Gladiator may not reach Blair Witch proportions, but we're betting you'll be hearing about this flick for weeks to come.
MILITARY TREND: Speaking of trends: in the past six weeks we've seen four different war-related terms reach the Lycos 50: World War II, the Vietnam War (#43 this week), Adolf Hitler (#44), and the Holocaust (#36). Now this week The Civil War jumps all the way to #29. Wha--? There's always a certain amount of online interest in wars, and the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon explains the extra Vietnam queries. But the Civil War? Hitler and the Holocaust? At this point we may have to wait until June to see if searches drop when school lets out.
SHORT SUBJECTS: We saw only a small burst of searches for Adam Petty, killed in a race car crash on Friday -- presumably the week was too short to register many searches before our Saturday night measurement deadline... the latest WWF flash in the pan, Trish Stratus, drops off our list after a three week run... Mariah Carey, on the other hand, is back after a one-week vacation... hip-hopper Sisqo seems to be losing steam as airplay of his "Thong Song" reaches the saturation point... Prom season is officially winding down: we have no prom queries on the Lycos 50 for the first time since January 18... how can Elian Gonzalez still be in the top 20?
NEW THIS WEEK: Flowers, the Civil War, Russell Crowe, Mariah Carey.
DROPOUTS: Trish Stratus, prom hairsyles, Cinco de Mayo, the Kentucky Derby.
BIGGEST RISE: Movie Gladiator, up a whopping 31 to #14.
BIGGEST DROP: The "I Love You" virus, down 17 to #20.
FINAL FACTOID: The "Love Bug" turned out to be just a 72-hour virus. After a three-day search frenzy last week, the e-mail virus drops from #3 to #20 this week. Hey, wasn't this supposed to be the giant catastrophe that wrought $8 billion worth of havoc? How soon we forget!
