PAGING MRS. FRISBY: The one new topic which broke through the flood of war-related searches was the Nimda virus (#8), which crippled a number of web users and companies last week. This new, more powerful form of the Code Red virus spreads as an e-mail attachment in the form of an executable file called readme.exe. Like most worms, Nimda is launched by opening the attachment -- but, thanks to a vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook, it may infect a computer when a user simply clicks on the subject line of an e-mail in an attempt to open it, or visits a Web page housed on an infected server.
Although Internet security firms say Nimda was released almost to the exact minute of the one-week anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the FBI has said it is not related. If you are looking for antivirus software to check for Nimda, Lycos Computers has a number of alternatives.
IN OTHER NEWS: A number of timely topics unrelated to terrorism were pushed below the Lycos 50 by the continued dominance of war searches. CART auto racing driver Alex Zanardi (#59) nearly died in a fiery crash last weekend in Germany. Windows XP (#53) is the latest version of Microsoft's ubiquitous PC platform, planned for October launch. Searches for mortgage rates (#58) also surged this week thanks to a cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve.
YULE TIDE: Neither rain nor sleet nor impending war can keep Christmas (#33) from making its first appearance on the list since January. Sure this seems early, since the holiday is three months away, but Christmas actually appeared on the list two weeks earlier in 2000. Leading the early Christmas searches are Christmas wallpaper (for computer backgrounds), Christmas cards, and Christmas crafts. Searches for Christmas trees and Christmas ornaments are still fairly low.
SHORT SUBJECTS: Friday's star-studded telethon America: A Tribute to Heroes (#49) would have ranked higher had it taken place earlier in the week? Nearly a quarter of FAA (#38) queries were for jobs, after the government announced it would hire a number of air marshalls to protect flights from criminal activities? Many searches for George W. Bush (#32) wanted text from his September 20th speech to the nation? The war hasn't even started, and yet the term World War III dropped more than 80 percent? Big Brother (#12) drops 43 percent despite crowning a winner this week, as banal reality television takes a back seat to the reality television called "news"? Computer game Half-Life Counter-Strike released another update? Could a drop in tourism mean Las Vegas (#42) is close to dropping out of the Lycos 50 for the first time ever?
NEW THIS WEEK: Nimda virus, gas masks, Face in the Smoke, Bin Laden wanted poster, Q33NY, stock market crash, Half-Life Counter-Strike, George W. Bush, Christmas, "God Bless America," diets, Slipknot, "The Star Spangled Banner," America: A Tribute to Heroes, anthrax.
DROPOUTS: Two more long-standing subjects fall by the wayside in the wake of the terrorist attacks: Lycos spokeswoman Anna Kournikova (31 weeks) and computer game The Sims (29 weeks). Also dropping out: file swap program Audiogalaxy, R&B singers Aaliyah and Whitney Houston, and war-related topics including Pentagon, September 11 (the date itself), World War III, Camp David, Canadian commentator Gordon Sinclair, Pearl Harbor, White House, Palestineans, WTC tenant Cantor Fitzgerald, and airplane-tracking website Flightview.
BIGGEST RISE: Pakistan, up 10 places to #39.
BIGGEST DROP: Red Cross, down 31 places to #43.
FINALLY: They say laughter is the best medicine. This week we began getting searches for Osama Bin Laden jokes -- about 1.7 percent of all Bin Laden searches. Don't say you didn't see it coming.
TOMORROW: More war-related search trends that couldn't crack the Lycos 50.
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