For 14 weeks, it was the unchallenged champion of Lycos search -- but no longer. For one week, at least, Powerball (#1) proved bigger than Dragonball (#2).
We had expected Dragonball to stay at the top until October, when either Halloween (#33, and rising fast) or Britney Spears (#4, with a new album coming out soon) would knock it from its perch.
But Lycos users had 295 million reasons to make Powerball the new search champion and the first ever lottery to make the #1 spot. Powerball received 90 percent more searches than Dragonball and 250 percent more searches than #3 Morpheus.
21 states and the District of Columbia participate in Powerball. The most popular state-related Powerball search was for Missouri Powerball, followed by, in order, Kentucky, Louisiana, Indiana, and D.C.
SWAP STORY: Don't let Powerball mania distract you from another big phenomenon just two spots below. Morpheus continues to assert itself as America's top file-swapping software, while Napster continues to slump. Napster's #17 position this week is its lowest ranking since April 2000.
KID POWER: A perfect game-spinning wunderkind put the Little League World Series (#49) into the national spotlight. Although his Bronx squad couldn't make it to the finals, kid pitcher Danny Almonte received more searches this week than the record-chasing home run machine Barry Bonds.
STRANGELY HOT: Does anybody know why Viagra (#24) and Barbie (#36) have proven so popular lately? If you have an idea, please let us know by mail.
BLOCKBUSTERS BUSTED: With both American Pie 2 and Planet of the Apes dropping off the list, we can declare the summer movie season over. Tomorrow we'll take a look at our predictions from earlier this summer, to see what we got right and what we got wrong.
SHORT SUBJECTS: After 23 weeks on the Lycos 50, violent video game Half-Life Counter-Strike drops off? And after one week off the list, Eminem (#41) returns? Star Trek (#26) gets a big boost from an appearance on the cover of TV Guide? Thanks to his interview with Connie Chung, Gary Condit (#45) gets more searches than Chandra Levy for the first time since the beginning of the missing intern scandal.
NEW THIS WEEK: Star Trek, Eminem, mortgage rates, Gary Condit, Carmen Electra, Destiny's Child, Little League World Series, Backstreet Boys.
DROPOUTS: American Pie 2, actress Shannon Elizabeth, video games Max Payne and Half-Life Counter-Strike, PGA Championship, Howard Stern, Mariah Carey, Planet of the Apes.
BIGGEST RISE: Tie between Powerball, up 19 places to #1, and Viagra, up 19 places to #24.
BIGGEST DROP: Tie between Diablo II, down 10 places to #35, and NASA, down 10 places to #42.
FINALLY: Where's singer, actress, and plane crash victim Aaliyah? Well, because she died Saturday night, and our search week runs Sunday to Saturday, her tragic passing doesn't make the list. Nonetheless, Lycos users searched for Aaliyah so much on Saturday night that her queries tripled this week. One can only wonder how high she'll finish next week.
