This week saw the Internet sports landscape change as soccer searches dropped and tennis' top tourney came onto the scene.

We are a bit shocked to see the World Cup (#4) drop out of the top spot on the Lycos 50 this week, but it makes some sense because the countries which use Lycos the most -- including England, Spain, and of course the United States -- were all out of the tournament by the semifinals. Soccer searches also drop from #23 to #45, and FIFA falls off the list.

That makes room for Wimbledon, which arrives on the Lycos this week at #31. Anna Kournikova shoots all the way up to #6 because of interest in her aborted interview with the BBC after her first round loss last week. Kournikova lost her temper, snapped at BBC reporter Garry Richardson, and stormed out of the interview after Richardson suggested she should consider playing some lower-tier tournaments.

Kournikova's troubles have the British tabloids designating leggy Slovakian star Daniela Hantuchova (#40) as the "next Anna." All the attention puts "the babe from Bratislava" on our list as well, marking the first time two tennis players have made the Lycos 50 in the same week.

CRAZY TRAIN: Amtrak (#15) is normally an item we don't include on the Lycos 50 -- you can read our FAQ for details, but Amtrak is left out for the same reason we don't include airlines on our list. But we set aside these restrictions when companies make the news, and this week Amtrak was in the news. Amtrak searches are up 50 percent over their usual amount because of congressional hearings on the train line's budget crisis. In an average week, if we counted it on the list, Amtrak would usually rank between #35 and #45.

MONEY MISSING: Of course, Amtrak is just one of a number of troubled companies in the news right now. This week's biggest scandal was WorldCom (#35) divulging that they misrepresented $3.8 billion in expenses in order to make their earnings seem higher. Worldcom gets searched every week for its products, but this week it gets four times the normal number of searches.

Tomorrow's Lycos 50 article will take a closer look at WorldCom, Enron, and other business scandals getting searches from Lycos users.

SKELETON KEY: Another item from this week's news, the Pledge of Allegiance (#56), narrowly missed the Lycos 50. An unexpected pledge-related search was for classic TV comedian Red Skelton. It turns out that Skelton did a bit on his TV show over 30 years ago that predicted that someday the pledge would be eliminated from schools because of the words "under God."

OBITS: We're quite surprised that Ann Landers searches didn't come close to the Lycos 50 this week. It turns out the longtime newspaper advice columnist doesn't have as many online fans as John Entwistle, bass player for The Who. Entwistle died in midweek, and still receives more searches this week than Landers. Entwistle and Who searches combined to reach #17 on the Lycos 50, and more than half the queries were for The Who, not Entwistle himself.

When members of musical groups pass away, it is interesting to see how many searches they get compared to their groups. George Harrison andLisa Lopes, for example, got far more searches than The Beatles and TLC respectively in the weeks they died. But both Joey Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone, like John Entwistle, spawned more searches for their band (The Ramones) than for themselves as individuals.

BONNAWHAT?: What on earth is topic #20, Bonnaroo? It was a huge outdoor music festival that attracted 70,000 music fans to Tennessee on June 22 and 23. The show featured a number of "jam bands," with members of the Grateful Dead and Phish among the performers. What is interesting is that none of the bands that performed get that many searches on their own, but the show caused such waves in the "jam band" online community that it makes the Lycos 50 the week after it happened. Odd.

CHOP CHOP: Jesse James, owner of a California motorcycle shop called West Coast Choppers (#37), is the latest star of the Discovery Channel. WCC makes the Lycos 50 this week thanks to the premiere of Discovery's Motorcycle Mania 2 this week. In fact, WCC nearly made the Lycos 50 back in January when the first Motorcycle Mania aired. James will also be transforming regular cars into "monster machines" for Discovery's fall show Monster Garage.

SHORT SUBJECTS: Actress Jennifer Aniston (#43) makes news for suing two magazines that printed unauthorized pictures of her sunbathing topless in her backyard... The postal rate increase putsU.S. Postal Service (#12) back on the Lycos 50... Shakira falls off the Lycos 50 after 33 straight weeks... Audiogalaxy (#34) searches plummet as interest in the company's deal with the RIAA turns into apathy about a file-swapping software that doesn't let you swap any files anymore... Compared to other online trailer premieres, there was surprisingly little interest this week in December's tenth Star Trek film, Nemesis... We called another sleeper hit: searches for Lilo and Stitch pass searches for Scooby-Doo this week.

NEW THIS WEEK: U.S. Postal Service, Amtrak, The Who, Bonnaroo, Wimbledon, WorldCom, West Coast Choppers, Daniela Hantuchova, Jennifer Aniston, Ashanti.

DROPOUTS: Shakira, FIFA, Father's Day, Scooby-Doo, Napster, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, golf clubs, mold, C-130 crash.

TWO YEARS AGO: Harry Potter debuted on the Lycos 50 at #29. He hasn't dropped off our list since, and this week the teen magician stands at #14.

TOMORROW: Equally popular business scandals!