Gun control was the #1 social issue of 1999, according to a tally of user web searches.
Though guns and abortion are ranked 1-2, guns are by far the hotter topic. The death penalty, AIDS, and tobacco round out the top five. The complete list:
THE TOP 10
1. Gun Control
2. Abortion
3. Death Penalty
4. AIDS
5. The Environment
6. Home Schooling
7. Tobacco
8. Pollution
9. Cloning
10. Animal Rights
HONORABLE MENTION:
11. Child Abuse
12. Euthanasia
13. Nukes
14. Birth Control
15. International Trade
Note that these topics have been tallied without considering motivation. A search on "nuclear power," for instance, may be from a political activist or an eighth-grader doing a report. This list shows what social issues were on people's minds for any reason.
Hot New Issue Award: Animal rights. Already at #10 (ahead of child abuse, in fact), this looks to be getting hotter.
Oddly Cool Issue Award: Gay rights. Is the battle over? Once a hotly debated topic, gay rights got barely 1/3rd the searches of euthanasia.
Ones to Watch for 2000: Genetic engineering, school violence.
Pollution and the environment are counted separately; added together they would have ranked #2, ahead of abortion. Also, the WTO protests in Seattle likely would have boosted international trade's rank, but they happened after the cutoff date for this year's list.
Tomorrow we'll rank famous historical figures in The Millennium's Most Wanted. 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 pro death penalty and capital punishment are both counted as searches for the death penalty. For more details about how we create these lists, please see our Lycos 50 FAQ.
Gun control was the #1 social issue of 1999, according to a tally of user web searches.
