In the average year, this would have been the week that Halloween (#2) ascended to the top of the Lycos 50. Nobody, however, needs to be reminded that this is not an average year.
Therefore, the top of this week's Lycos 50 remains a mix of terrorism-related and Halloween-related subjects, although the Halloween subjects (such as #6 costumes) have gone up since last week. Besides costumes, other hot Halloween searches include computer downloads, crafts, and games.
It is important to note that since our search week ends on Saturday night, this week's list does not include any searches based on yesterday's bombing of Afghanistan.
WHAT, ME WORRY: Lycos users are sending conflicting messages about their fear of biological and chemical attacks this week. On one hand, gas mask searches are down to #19. On the other hand, anthrax searches went up from #36 to #20, and they will likely go up even further this week after a second case was discovered in Florida.
TWO FRIENDS: Searches for friends are up during the last two weeks. It looks like those are searches for the TV show Friends, since we're getting more searches than usual for Friends spoilers and Friends NBC. But the searches also may be related to a huge influx of searches for the British website Friends Reunited.
Friends United is the British version of a concept that has been done a number of times in America, a site to track what old classmates are doing now. The site first got searches in June and since then has grown steadily. This week it receives more searches than either Survivor or Star Trek hottie Jolene Blalock.
Speaking of Survivor, earlier this year it didn't appear in the Lycos 50 until after its season premiere. Given the bomb that Love Cruise has become, we are anxious to see if the king of reality television is subject to the same post-September 11 disinterest that other reality shows have encountered.
FILE SHARING SUED: Morpheus (#7) passed Napster (#33) as the top file-sharing software back in July, and we've been waiting ever since for the record industry to recognize this. Finally last week, they did, suing a number of non-Napster software companies including Morpheus.
Meanwhile, a new version of KaZaA (#17) with a security patch has searches for the popular file sharing software up significantly this week.
SHORT SUBJECTS: Things are different now, example 4,259: The marriage of Jennifer Lopez (#22) only gives her a 10 percent boost in searches? Another newsmagazine must have done a piece on those frightening pro-anorexia (#29) websites, because searches for the eating disorder spike again and finally enter the Lycos 50? Now that it has moved to UPN, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (#32) is hotter than ever.
NEW THIS WEEK: Mortgage rates, anorexia, marijuana, 'N Sync, Playstation 2, Slipknot.
DROPOUTS: Q33NY, Star Trek Enterprise, George W. Bush, Nimda Virus, Klingerman Virus, Gnutella.
BIGGEST RISE: Anthrax, up 16 places to #20.
BIGGEST DROP: Gas masks, down 11 places to #19.
FINALLY: We've noted that the searches for Michael Jordan haven't really grown as we expected after he announced his comeback. But searches for his team, the Washington Wizards, have developed significantly. They are now up 460 percent over two weeks ago, making the Wizards the most-searched NBA team of the last two weeks.
