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Search Term Change Last WK #WKS
1Poker
Televised Tournaments
2Paris Hilton
Celebrity Heiress BFF
3YouTube
All Things Video
4Golf
Hole in one
5Sarah Palin
On the road to 2012
6Britney Spears
Comeback Queen under Circus Big Top
7Clay Aiken
Finally Comes Out
8Pamela Anderson
Favorite pin-up girl
9Facebook
Zillions of Friends
10Holly Madison
Hef's House Bunny
11Kim Kardashian
From Reality TV to Dancing Queen
12The U.S. Economy
Brother can you spare a dime
13Presidential Election '08
History is Made
14NBA
Slam Dunk
15Tina Fey
I can see Russia from my House
16Lindsay Lohan
On again off again with Samantha Ronson
17Naruto
New King of Anime
18Angelina Jolie
Never a dull moment
19Halloween
Scary Stuff
20Dragonball
The movie's coming
21WWE
Wrestlemania Central
22Pokemon
Monster Media Franchise
23DIY Home Improvement
Home Depot & Lowe's
24Jessica Alba
Beauty
25Carmen Electra
Fantasy Girl
View 26-50 >
LYCOS 50 NEWSLETTER
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LYCOS 50 ELITE
Ranking with us since 1999
  1. Pamela Anderson - From her Baywatch past to her PETA activism to her on-again/off-again romance with Kid Rock, Pam is always a hot topic with web users.
  2. Dragonball - The story of a monkey-tailed boy who becomes the strongest martial artist in the world. A Lycos 50 phenomenon.
  3. Britney Spears - In 1999, we all tried to memorize the dance steps to "Baby One More Time." Then, we watched her get married, embarass herself on the UPN network, walk around LA barefoot, drive with a baby on her lap, get skinny, get divorced, shave her head, enter rehab ... and attempt a comeback?
TIER 2
Appearing for over 100 weeks
  1. Paris Hilton - Celebrity Heiress
  2. Clay Aiken - Not so "invisible"
  3. Jessica Simpson - Pop/Country Singer
  4. WWE - World Wrestling Entertainment corporation
  5. Britney Spears - Celebrity Icon
FAQ
Q.  What is the Lycos 50?
A.  The Lycos 50 lists the people, places and things which are most on the public mind as reflected by Lycos user searches over the past week.
Q.  How is the Lycos 50 derived?
A.  Each day millions of people visit the Lycos Network, type some 12 million queries into our search box and ask us to "go get it." These queries (which average 2.3 words apiece) form the basis of our weekly Lycos 50 report. Each Monday we tally up the hits for each query during the previous week, then make the following adjustments:
  • Misspellings and plurals are combined and counted as searches on a single term.
  • We ignore any queries which appear to be automated, mechanized or commercially motivated.
  • Categorical terms such as weather, news, and music are not included.
  • We ignore pornographic, four-letter words and otherwise lewd queries, including names of decidedly adult film stars, unless such terms are driven by news events.
  • Queries on popular Web tools are ignored, in order to prevent the medium itself from skewing the list.
  • We exclude all company names with the exception of company queries which are driven by the news.
  • We exclude all country names.
Q.  How often does the Lycos 50 change?
A.  The Lycos 50 list is updated once per week.
Q.  How much time does the Lycos 50 cover?
A.  The Lycos 50 covers public activity from the previous seven days, Sunday to Saturday inclusive.
Q.  How long has the Lycos 50 been counting web queries?
A.  Lycos was the first Internet search engine to launch a feature detailing search trends for the public at large. Fritz Holznagel began writing the Lycos 50 in August of 1999.
Q.  How do I contact the Lycos 50?
A.  For press contacts and to receive the Lycos 50 media alert, email Kathy O'Reilly at koreilly@lycos-inc.com. For general comments, write to 50@lycos-inc.com.
BIOGRAPHIES

The writer of the Lycos 50 is Carissa Pompei.

Carissa loves writing and has a passion for discovering new playing fields for the expression of her ideas. Equipped with a degree in English, she has explored media relations, due diligence, public relations and marketing across both public and private spheres. Her next challenge? Pop culture! When not analyzing the world's fascination with Britney's third comeback and Palin's huge hair, Carissa likes yoga, low pressure races (5k anyone?) and volunteering for the Boston-based On Your Feet Project.

Over the years, the Lycos 50 has been written by other talented individuals from the entertainment industry, including Caroline Collins, a media specialist and pop culture junkie, Dean Tsouvalas, former ABC News Television producer of "Prime Time with Diane Sawyer," and on-air talent with the FX Network.

The concept of The Lycos 50 was created in 1999 by Fritz Holznagel, original writer of The Lycos 50, and executive producer, Jonathan Levine. From 2000 through 2003, writing and daily reports were provided by the Sultan of Search - Aaron Schatz, former disc jockey and record reviews writer.

The methods for studying search traffic for the Lycos 50 were developed by Doug Beeferman.

Public relations and media are managed by Kathy O'Reilly.

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