The top four items on the Lycos 50 stay the same as last week, led by long-time #1 Dragonball. But just below, our list of the top terms online has some new leaders thanks to a scary disease, a surprising airline promotion, and cable TV's newest and biggest star.

Anna Nicole Smith's (#5) E! reality show is the biggest hit in that network's history, and her online searches are going through the roof. But more serious topics also beckoned Lycos users this week.

With the West Nile Virus (#6) now being called "emerging, infectious disease epidemic," it is no wonder that Lycos users are extra curious about everything connected with this mosquito-borne illness. Most people who contract West Nile suffer nothing more than headaches and flu-like symptoms, but sometimes the disease can develop into a fatal encephalitis, or brain inflammation.

So far over a hundred cases have been discovered, and Lycos News can keep you informed on the latest updates.

WE"VE GOT SPIRIT: Another big news story of the week was the September 11 giveaway from Spirit Airlines (#8). The Florida-based carrier decided to give away all of its September 11 tickets for free -- a total of 13,400 free seats on 90 flights. Within hours on Wednesday, the tickets were gone.

It remains to be seen if the publicity can help raise Spirit's profile. Airline searches online are still generally similar to what they were when we ranked the top airline searches a year ago. Southwest, American, and United are the most popular airlines, with Spirit far behind.

PHONE PHUN: Spirit's website wasn't the only one to get a lot of action on Wednesday. That day, the state of Pennsylvania began a program that allows citizens to block telemarketing calls. This plan is so popular that the phone system designed to register Pennsylvanians on the "Do Not Call" list crashed on the first day.

Luckily, the system is also available on the Internet, and the website No Calls Please (#37) received enough searches to make the Lycos 50. By 5 p.m. Wednesday, almost 200,000 people had joined the list using this website.

PUPPY CHOW: The NBC summer game show Dog Eat Dog has gotten a good amount of searches since its premiere. But it has never come close to the Lycos 50, which is why we were surprised when one of the six Playboy Playmates featured on last week's episode made our list: Jennifer Walcott (#31).

What makes the Walcott searches particularly strange is that she was one of six Playmates to appear as contestants on the show, but none of the others came close to the Lycos 50. In fact, add together searches for the other five -- Deanna Brooks, Daphnee Lynn Duplaix, Danelle Folta, Stacy Fuson, and Shanna Moakler -- with searches for the show itself and you still don't get as many searches as Walcott receives this week. Is there any explanation for Walcott fever?

CLEAN XXX: As we expected, Vin Diesel (#12) is larger than life. He becomes the second-highest ranking actor in the history of the Lycos 50, topped only by Josh Harnett in the week after Pearl Harbor opened. Although searches for xXx are always high because of the adult connection, the movie caused searches for those three letters to go up an additional 20 percent.

This week's #2 box office finisher is also proving popular on Lycos. Signs comes in just short of the Lycos 50 at #55, and it has inspired enough searches for crop circles (#43) to put that topic on our list.

FANBOYS UNITE: Lord of the Rings (#10) jumps up 27 spots this week after the DVD for The Fellowship of the Ring was released on August 6. The DVD also includes a ten minute preview of the next film, The Two Towers. In the spirit of draining every dollar from Tolkien addicts, however, an extended "Platnium Edition" of the DVD will be released in November.

THE KING: With the 25th anniversary of his death coming up on Friday, Elvis Presley (#50) is experiencing quite a revival. This week he appears on the Lycos 50 for the first time since August 2000. RCA is preparing a CD of 30 Elvis hits to be released in September, hoping to duplicate the success of the Beatles 1 CD. You can snag the popular new Elvis "A Little Less Conversation" remix at Lycos Music.

SHORT SUBJECTS: Stock market searches return to near normal levels this week... South Dakota's Sturgis Bike Rally comes close to the Lycos 50 at #60... Why, oh why, do people still search for the late great Napster (#46)?

NEW THIS WEEK: Spirit Airlines, Jennifer Walcott, No Calls Please, crop circles, Napster, Elvis Presley.

DROPOUTS: Bruce Springsteen, Kylie Minogue, stock market, Austin Powers, Linkin Park, Commonwealth Games.

ONE YEAR AGO: NFL was #21 and fantasy football made its first-ever appearance on the Lycos 50 at #34. This year, pigskin is even more popular: the NFL is already up to #9 while fantasy football just gets hotter and hotter at #11.

TOMORROW: Wherever I lay my phone, that's my home.