While the top of the Lycos 50 remains fairly stable this week, the bottom of the list has a number of new additions.

Halloween (#1) once again is the leader of search, though Osama Bin Laden (#2) makes an unexpected run at returning to the top slot. He's up 40 percent or so, Halloween is up 33 percent.

Halloween-related searches are also big, with costumes at #4 and pumpkins moving up to #6 (that includes searches such as pumpkin carving and jack o' lanterns).

Just below the Lycos 50 you'll find two more Halloween-related searches that usually make the 50 around this time. Mexico's Day of the Dead (#52) takes places November 1, and will make the list next week. Witchcraft (#56) made the Lycos 50 for four weeks last Halloween, but hasn't quite gotten enough searches to make the list this year.

SICK OF SICKNESS: Anthrax (#5) interest is drops this week, as the story begins to get stale. Anthrax searches are down 40 percent, and Cipro drops 66 percent and off the Lycos 50. Smallpox searches also dropped, though by a smaller amount.

HOT HERBS: Once again it turns out marijuana (#15) is autumn's hottest leaf. In the last three weeks the drug has jumped from #45 to #28 to #15, once again vindicating our theory that marijuana searches go up during the school year. They just took a bit longer this time. Was September 11 the cause of a pause in dope smoking?

OLDER WOMEN: We know why Martha Stewart (#44) returns to the Lycos 50 this week. She's always good for an appearance around a holiday.

We don't know, however, why Oprah Winfrey (#36) bursts back into the Lycos 50 this week. We thought it might be in connection to the controversy over author Jonathan Frazen's refusal to be a part of the Oprah Book Club. But Frazen searches aren't up. So is it something else? Let us know your thoughts.

RAYS OF LIGHT: Microsoft has two huge product launches this month, and they went opposite ways on this week's Lycos 50. Windows XP (#41) queries inexplicably drop in half, but the long awaited video game console Xbox (#29) not only returns to the Lycos 50 but gets more searches than Playstation 2 (#39) for the first time.

ROCK SHOW: A number of rock bands are surging up the search logs, including Linkin Park (#46), Slipknot (#49), Incubus (#68), and two of last week's daily report subjects: Shakira (#59) and System of a Down (#65). Also climbing is growling rapper DMX (#66).

SHORT SUBJECTS: World Trade Center (#14) drops out of the top ten for the first time since September 11... Greek mythology (#38) finally becomes the first academic subject to make the Lycos 50 this school year... Michael Jordan is the most popular player in the NBA (#47), with 50 percent more searches than Allen Iverson.

NEW THIS WEEK: Xbox, Oprah Winfrey, mortgage rates, Greek mythology, Playstation 2, Martha Stewart, Linkin Park, NBA, Aaliyah, Slipknot.

DROPOUTS: FBI, diets, Viagra, Neopets, The Sims, Al-Jazeera, Cipro, Blink-182, IRS, Michael Jackson.

BIGGEST RISE: Pumpkins, up 18 places to #6.

BIGGEST DROP: Windows XP, down 25 places to #41

IN WITH THE NEW: Yes, the Lycos 50 looks a bit different today. We hope you like our new look and feel. The new design should allow us to introduce some new features that will make the Lycos 50 even better, and we think the left-hand list looks really nice now.

Thanks to Curt Degenhart, Ambar Shrivastava, Mike Brule, and Amit Segal for helping make this happen.