Once again a female athlete is experiencing a tidal wave of popularity with Lycos users thanks to off-the-court activities -- or in this case, the possibility of off-the-court activities.
This week, the athlete in question is the WNBA's Lisa Harrison. The Phoenix Mercury forward was the runaway winner of Playboy's "Sexiest Babe of the WNBA" contest and says she may actually go through with posing for the magazine.
That news sent Lycos users scrambling to find out what Harrison looks like. Harrison searches in two weeks have gone from zero to second among all athletes, behind only Anna Kournikova. She gets about half as many searches as would be needed to make the Lycos 50.
Harrison searches look even more impressive when compared to top male athletes. This week Harrison was searched for 70 percent more frequently than two-time defending Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and 250 percent more frequently than Tiger Woods.
Harrison is not the first female athlete to pose nude. Volleyball player Gabrielle Reece, the last athlete to pose for Playboy, is also seeing a burst of renewed interest thanks to the Harrison story. Her searches more than tripled this week.
Going farther back, you may remember that in December 1999 the Australian Women's Soccer Team reached #40 on the Lycos 50 because of a controversial nude calendar featuring 12 of their players.
Harrison is experiencing an effect that can be referred to as "naked novelty." There are certain celebrities we expect to see naked - Pamela Anderson, for example, or Carmen Electra. For new pictures of them naked to appear is no big deal.
When a person you don't expect to see naked appears naked in a magazine, or on the Internet, the novelty value of it, the shock value, creates the interest. This was evident when WWF star Chyna appeared in Playboy, or when Halle Berry doffed her top for the first time in Swordfish.
The best example was earlier this year when naked pictures of actress-turned-journalist Andrea Thompson were released on the Internet. Thompson peaked at #2 on the Lycos 50 because people were so interested in the photos. It wasn't that Thompson is more beautiful than the women she outdrew on Lycos that week, like Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez. It is that the shock of naked pictures of a journalist got people talking and created interest.
We think that if Harrison does pose for Playboy, there will be a place for her in the Lycos 50. The idea of a WNBA player naked is just too titillating. If she decides not to, she will likely be quickly forgotten on the Internet. That may not be fair, but that's the way it goes for the WNBA.
TOMORROW: The new hottest game.
