Nothing generates Lycos searches like a celebrity death, and the unfortunate passing of R&B singer Aaliyah tops the Lycos 50 this week.
Searches for Aaliyah differed greatly from searches for the last major celebrity death, that of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt. We didn't receive too many searches for Aaliyah memorabilia, as we did for Earnhardt, and the lack of controversy meant there were far fewer searches for Aaliyah autopsy than for Dale Earnhardt autopsy.
Aaliyah's unique name did prove hard to spell. Roughly 12 percent of Aaliyah queries misspelled her name, with the most popular spellings including Aliyah (4.4 percent), Alliyah (3.5 percent), Aaliya, Alliya, and Aliya. We also got a good number of queries with Aaliyah's full name, Aaliyah Dana Houghton.
Another popular request was for the official Aaliyah memorial website, which you can find at www.aaliyah2001.com.
I WANT MY MTV: Aaliyah searches, combined with tomorrow's Video Music Awards, have given a big boost to MTV this week. MTV searches double, and MTV News gets 12 times as many searches as usual.
Speaking of MTV stars, Britney Spears drops to #8 this week. That's her lowest ranking since we began the Lycos 50 two years ago. In fact, this is the first week in Lycos 50 history that Britney is not the musical artist with the most searches.
It won't last, of course -- Britney should shoot up next week after she debuts her new single, "I'm a Slave 4 U," on tomorrow night's awards show. She may even make #1.
BALLBUSTER: Aaliyah pushes last week's #2 Powerball down a spot, but it is surprising that Powerball maintains so much interest. Curiosity about the winners, gradually unveiled during the week, kept the lottery interest strong and pushed old champ Dragonball down to #3 for the first time since April.
FOOTBALL: The NFL (#7) continues to assert itself as America's most popular sports league. Fantasy football (#14) also continues to climb. It now stands at one place above Pamela Anderson (#15), which means that fantasy football has replaced Pamela Anderson as America's most popular fantasy. This, my friends, is the joy of owning Duce Staley.
Speaking of football, soccer enters the list at #33 this week. Soccer seems to always get hot around September, and made the list last year at this time as well. If you know why September is the hot month for Soccer, drop us a line.
AFRICAN BROTHER: The hottest thing in South Africa these days isn't the World Conference to Blame the Jews for Everything (aka The Protocols of the Elders of Durban). Nope, the average South African is much more concerned with the arrival of reality television.
Another nation has been infected by Big Brother (#4), and you can add South Africa to the list of countries whose citizens have hit the American version of Lycos in order to look for Big Brother information. Big Brother searches nearly tripled this week, and 23 percent of those searches specified the new South African version of the show. The website iAfrica.com calls Big Brother "undoubtedly the biggest TV phenomenon ever to hit South African screens."
PLASTIC MEN: Ten musicians who sport faces created out of man-made polymers and synthetic materials debut on our list this week. Nine of them are members of the horrifyingly brainless, mask-wearing nü-metal band Slipknot (#47). The other one is Michael Jackson (#39).
SHORT SUBJECTS: Martha Stewart (#50) is usually hot around holiday times, so we're not sure why she's big this week? Tattoos (#11) drop out of the top ten for the first time since March? It looks close to dropping out of the Lycos 50, but we expect marijuana (#46) to rebound soon as kids return to school and the speedy Internet connections of academia? The recent resurgence of the WWF (#16) seems to be over? Tennis is hotter than ever, with week one of the U.S. Open (#12) coming in eight spaces above last year (when it was #20).
NEW THIS WEEK: Aaliyah, U.S. Open, Soccer, Michael Jackson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Slipknot, Martha Stewart.
DROPOUTS: NASA, mortgage rates, Blink-182, Carmen Electra, Destiny's Child, Little League World Series, Backstreet Boys.
BIGGEST RISE: Big Brother, up 15 places to #4.
BIGGEST DROP: Star Trek, down 18 places to #44.
FINALLY: In the category "odd combinations," here's our strangest query of the week that actually received multiple searches: pics of Aaliyah's tattoos.
TOMORROW: Teen dreams.
