Harry Potter has long been an online oddity: despite two years of international publicity, the children's literary hero has never cracked the Lycos 50.
But -- finally! -- that all changes this week, as Harry Potter makes his debut at #29. The July 8 release of the fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, has clearly got the book-buying public hot and bothered.
Other key points from this week's Lycos 50:
EURO SPORTS ON PARADE: The venerable Wimbledon tennis tourney makes a simply smashing showing, debuting at #19 this week (and with championship week still to come). Another sports event from "over the pond," the Euro 2000 soccer tournament, drops slightly to #12. The tourney ended on Sunday with France's miracle win, so we expect to see it drop from the 50 next week.
SPEAKING OF WIMBLEDON: Anna Kournikova seems to be having a renaissance of sorts: with Wimbledon in full swing she's moved up to #9 on the Lycos 50. (Self-aggrandizing aside: you may recall that last week Lycos recognized her as the most-searched athlete of the past year -- you can see footage of the event on Lycos TV. The publicity may have affected her standing on our search logs, though we think the effect should be negligible.)
CONGER LINE: We thought it was a big deal when Darva Conger made it to #34 two weeks ago. Turns out we sold her short: this week she jumps all the way to #8. And all because she sheds her duds in the August issue of Playboy. Which leads to the question: when do we see Rick Rockwell naked in Cosmopolitan?
ISLANDS ON THE SCREEN: Also new to the top 10: the CBS TV series Survivor. We're starting to see two sets of sub-queries for the show: can't-wait viewers looking for "Survivor winner" and can't-stand-it surfers typing in "Survivor Sucks."
SHORT SUBJECTS: Rapper Eminem is finally on the down side, dropping from #4 to #13... Kid Rock (#24) and Dr. Dre (#31) replace former hotties DMX and Sisqo... Celine Dion's much-publicized pregnancy moves her up to #35... The scientific triumph of the Human Genome Project grabbed the world's attention enough to make it this week's #48... the Fourth of July gets two different spots on this week's list, one for the holiday itself (#26) and one for fireworks (#28).
NEW THIS WEEK: Wimbledon, Kid Rock, the Fourth of July, fireworks, Harry Potter, Dr. Dre, video game Half-Life, Celine Dion, TV hostess Oprah Winfrey, the Human Genome Project, actress Shannon Elizabeth.
DROPOUTS: Star Wars, audio tool Gnutella, band Korn, actor Russell Crowe, computer game The Sims, soccer, actress Angelina Jolie, the IRS, Father's Day, golf's U.S. Open, the American Film Institute's list of 100 great comedies.
BIGGEST RISE: Video game Diablo, up 28 spots to #15.
BIGGEST DROP: Swimming pools, down 15 to #39.
AND FINALLY: So long to a Lycos 50 old-timer, the alterna-band Korn. The alternative rockers were a Lycos 50 original: they appeared on our very first rankings last August and remained for 45 consecutive weeks until dropping off the list this week.
