We're tracking a new web craze: CARTOON DOLLS.
Cartoon dolls are suddenly a hot search topic -- last week they got about as many user queries as Shannon Elizabeth or Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.
The fad seems to have originated at a chat site known as The Palace, where the dolls are used as avatars: you choose a doll, add the hair and clothes you want, then trot it out as the image you present to others while you chat. But now the dolls have taken on a life of their own
People (mostly girls, it seems) create dozens of the dolls and then line them up on their homepages, about the same way kids used to line up dolls on their bedroom shelves.
Some girls give their cartoon dolls names and personalities ("Brittany owns two dogs name Taz and Tweety. She enters her dogs in the fairs every summer..."). Others create dolls patterned on famous books. Some people are even into making dolls for strangers on demand. And of course there's now a webring.
The dolls themselves aren't anything the National Organization for Women will crow about -- the images tend toward the Barbie school of anatomical proportions -- but on the other hand, they DO encourage creativity. And you can dress yours up as a venture capitalist or cardiac surgeon if you wish. Here's a site with a good explanation of how to get started.
So: is this the 21st-century version of playing with dolls? You decide. All we know is, cartoon doll searches are up 800% since March 1st.
