Britney Spears is the Most Wanted Woman of 1999, according to searches by Lycos users.
Welcome to day one of the Lycos 50's Web's Most Wanted awards. For the next two weeks we'll present eight lists of the year's most-searched-for people, places and things -- culminating with the overall Lycos Top 50 for 1999.
Our first list: the Most Wanted Women. Ms. Spears wins the title by a huge margin, getting 50% more searches than traditional powerhouse Pamela Anderson and three times more searches than third place finisher Jennifer Lopez. (Good timing: Spears will conduct a live chat on Lycos this week.)
THE TOP TEN:
1. Britney Spears
2. Pamela Anderson
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Sable
5. Shania Twain
6. Anna Kournikova
7. Jennifer Love Hewitt
8. Jenny McCarthy
9. Mariah Carey
10. Carmen Electra
HONORABLE MENTION:
11. Heather Graham
12. Alyssa Milano
13. Martha Stewart
14. Denise Richards
15. Sarah Michelle Gellar
16. Brandi Chastain
17. Madonna
18. Anna Nicole Smith
19. Oprah Winfrey
20. Cindy Crawford
Musicians dominate the top 10: Spears, Lopez, Twain, Hewitt and Carey all have had hit albums. (Spears, Lopez and Hewitt also act.) Anna Kournikova is the only athlete to make the top 10, and Cindy Crawford the only fashion model to make the top 20.
Rookie of the Year Award: Brandi Chastain. The US soccer star unleased a flood of queries when she doffed her shirt after hitting the winning goal in the Women's World Cup.
Bore of the Year Award (tie): Madonna and Jenny McCarthy. Both drew steady interest despite doing next to nothing in 1999.
Hot in '98, Not So Hot in '99: Calista Flockhart, Gillian Anderson, Jennifer Aniston, Claudia Schiffer.
Ones to Watch for 2000: Singer Christina Aguilera, actresses Catherine Zeta-Jones and Natalie Portman. None made the top 20, but all had strong showings that suggest future success.
On Wednesday we'll feature our second list, the Web's Most Wanted Bands of 1999. (Tomorrow we present the new weekly Lycos 50 as usual.) Join us, won't you?
Note: These rankings reflect all terms entered into the Lycos search engine by users between January 1 and Thanksgiving (November 25) 1999. All spellings and search variations are included in these totals; for instance, searches for Brittany Spears and Britney Spears pictures are counted as searches for Britney Spears. For more details about how we create these lists, please see our Lycos 50 FAQ.
Britney Spears is the Most Wanted Woman of 1999, according to searches by Lycos users.
