It was a wild week on the Lycos 50. America's favorite bomb nearly outdrew its favorite sex bomb, our favorite wizard has his highest rank ever, and a one-time Lycos 50 #1 topic fell off the list after 88 weeks.

Britney Spears (#5) searches were up 25 percent this week as her new album Britney hit stores. But the bigger story might have been the popularity of the daisy cutter (#11).

NO NAPSTER: After 88 weeks on the Lycos 50, including a long run near the top of the list, the music swapping program Napster drops off the Lycos 50 this week -- barely. It finishes #51. File swapper Audiogalaxy (#49) is also dropping, but KaZaA (#40) returns to the list this week.

WIZ-BANG: Well, he's stagnated for a couple of weeks, but this week Harry Potter (#8) finally gets his big push into the top ten. Another reason to see Harry Potter: rumors say the movie will be preceded by the first trailers for Star Wars: Episode II (#14).

The holiday season's other blockbuster-in-waiting, Lord of the Rings (#45), also enters the Lycos 50.

TOUGH TURKEY: Only two weeks in the Lycos 50, and Thanksgiving is already at #3, passing Christmas (#4). This demonstrates how each holiday has its own pattern. Christmas debuts early, in September even, and then rises slowly. Thanksgiving doesn't show up until after Halloween but then it rockets up the list quickly.

CONSOLE COMBAT: The Nintendo Gamecube (#38) makes its first appearance on the Lycos 50 this week, putting all three of the battling next-generation video game machines on the list. Xbox (#21) is still the current leader, but all this competition has done wonders for the Playstation 2 (#24) as well. The system was hovering between #45 and #60 until the last few weeks, when interest in the new competition meant interest in the PS2 as well.

ACADEMIA NUTS: All the academic subjects which normally infiltrate the Lycos 50 in the autumn seem to finally be close to showing up. Greek mythology is up 12 places to #28, while the periodic table (#56) and Shakespeare (#57) are close behind. History class also seems to be big this year, with searches for both World War II (#50) and World War I (#66) up in the last two weeks.

But where are the science fair projects? Last year at this time they were at #22, but this year they aren't even close to the Lycos 50. They're getting less than half the number of searches compared to November 2000.

SHORT SUBJECTS: A couple of weeks after we declared her "One to Watch," Latin chanteuse Shakira debuts at #49... Last week's odd occurrence of the aurora borealis in the continental United States almost makes the list, finishing #58... Mixing up teams and screwing with alliances did wonders for Survivor (#31) searches... The musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer gets that show near the Lycos 50 at #52... How much does it help to win? The Arizona Diamondbacks get 25 percent more searches this week than the New York Yankees.

NEW THIS WEEK: Daisy cutter, Star Wars, Veterans Day (including searches for Canada's Remembrance Day), Gamecube, KaZaA, Lord of the Rings, Shakira, World War II.

DROPOUTS: Napster, Halloween, costumes, Islam, pumpkins, rock band Linkin Park, Day of the Dead, Daylight Savings Time.

BIGGEST RISE: Mortgage rates, up 26 places to #9. All hail Greenspan!

BIGGEST DROP: Baseball, down 11 places to #27. All hail the Big Unit!

ONE YEAR AGO: Until the terrorist attacks of September 11, nothing had ever taken over the Lycos 50 like the 2000 Election.