Football and Dragonball are the hot stories in this week's new Lycos 50. (See the complete list at left.)Football (#3) clicked with Lycos users, with NFL searches so strong that we've split the category and given the league its own listing (#7). (Recombine NFL with football and they'd move into the number two spot, topping Britney Spears -- no easy task.)
Meanwhile Dragonball Z continued its surprising climb up the list. The cartoon superhero show (and game) has been on the air in Japan for years but only recently made it to broadcast in the US. A new season just started on the Cartoon Network and user searches have shot up. It's a little early to declare Dragonball Z the next Pokemon, but a rise to #5 indicates a very hot item. And it takes some serious muscle to pin the ever-popular WWF (now #6).
Other highlights from this week's list:
NEW THIS WEEK: NFL, Dreamcast, US Open tennis tournament, Halloween, Anna Kournikova, Tiberian Sun, frogs, East Timor, 'Stigmata,' soccer.
DROPOUTS: Tough week for actresses, with Mariah Carey, Carmen Electra, Heather Graham and Sarah Michelle "Buffy" Gellar all dropping off the Lycos 50. Other dropouts included cats, Y2K, Hawaii, solar eclipse, IRS and boating.
BIGGEST RISE: Dreamcast, Sega's slick new gaming machine, debuted at a gaudy #20. (Rival platform Playstation still got more user searches at #11.) The U.S. Open tennis tourney was not far behind at #33. The hot Final Fantasy game series moved up 15 spots to #16.
BIGGEST DROP: Summer's finally over for 'The Blair Witch Project,' which fell 22 spots from #3 to #25. Rockers Limp Bizkit dropped 19 spots from 25 to 44.
BIGGEST CURIOSITY: Frogs? New at #34, this one has us stumped. It could be a rush on frog dissection techniques for this fall's biology students, or it could be searches for the gruesome-yet-popular Frog in a Blender cartoon. Neither one explains the sudden jump.
LEAST LOGICAL ENTRY: Anna Kournikova, the Russian tennis star who seems to be a favorite with teenage boys, jumped from off the charts to #29 even though she dropped out of the US Open. Finalists Serena Williams and Martina Hingis didn't crack the list.
FADING FAST: The Ricky Martin craze seems to be out of steam heat. Despite his MTV Awards triumphs, he's barely on the list at #49. (You know you're fading when you drop below baby names.)
And that's the latest Lycos 50. For previous reports, see our archives. Coming Wednesday at noon: Mambo #5 and other fresh hotties.
