The Lycos top 50 searches for the week ending Nov. 11

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http://50.lycos.com/

1 Election 2000 - Historically close 1|7

2 Electoral College - Gore ahead x|1

3 Dragonball - Non-election #1 2|65

4 Florida Recount - Presidential key x|1

5 Christmas - Six weeks to go 10|10

6 Drudge Report - Exit poll site x|1

7 Britney Spears - #1 teen singer 6|65

8 George W. Bush - 43rd President? 9|10

9 Thanksgiving - Turkey Day 12|2

10 Al Gore - 43rd President? 8|10

11 Napster - Web music tool 3|37

12 Pokemon - Still a hit 11|65

13 Playstation 2 - Hot game console 5|4

14 Rush Limbaugh - Republican icon 42|2

15 Tattoos - Still popular 16|65

16 WWF - Pro wrasslers 14|65

17 Football - Pigskin mania 18|17

18 The NFL - Football pros 19|16

19 Marijuana - Hot weed 22|45

20 Pam Anderson - Pinup queen 21|65

21 Eminem - Pasty rapper 20|29

22 Science Fair Projects - Student fave 15|10

23 Majora's Mask - New Zelda game x|1

24 Las Vegas - Sin City USA 36|65

25 Final Fantasy - Video game 29|63

26 'N Sync - Hot boy band 24|65

27 Gundam Wing - Resurgent anime 33|3

28 The Bible - Ancient text 31|62

29 Charlie's Angels - Chick flick 26|3

30 Veteran's Day - Annual salute x|1

31 Skateboarding - Teen transport 40|35

32 Sailor Moon - Cartoon princess 50|48

33 Harry Potter - Wizard of lit 27|20

34 The Simpsons - New season here 34|45

35 Limp Bizkit - Angry rockers 28|7

36 Nelly - St. Louis rapper 44|14

37 Ralph Nader - Saint or Spoiler? 25|3

38 Shakespeare - Bard of Avon x|1

39 Christina Aguilera - #2 teen singer x|1

40 Anna Kournikova - Teen tennis star 38|2

41 Carmen Electra - Playboy cover girl 37|2

42 Jennifer Lopez - Latin bombshell 39|65

43 Greek Mythology - Academic hit x|1

44 Backstreet Boys - New album Tuesday x|1

45 Barbie - Classic doll x|1

46 Basketball - NBA starts play 45|2

47 South Park - Now in 4th grade x|1

48 Diablo II - Computer game x|1

49 Chyna - Wrestling pinup 46|2

50 Melbourne Cup - Australian horse race x|1

-- Sign (of@the.times), November 14, 2000

Answers

http://50.lycos.com/

The week's surreal election events inspired so many user queries that we've split election searches into three different categories. Even after that division, three of the top four subjects on the Lycos 50 are election-related: Election 2000 (#1), the Electoral College (#2), and the Florida Recount (#4), which includes searches for a such items as Palm Beach ballot, Florida Election Comission, and election recount.

With total election searches up roughly 385 percent over last week, only the indefatigable Dragonball (#3) can make a dent at the top.

In all, seven of our top 20 items were related to the elections. The Drudge Report, a controversial political site that first disclosed the Monica Lewinsky affair in 1998, is #6 this week. Editor Matt Drudge posted early exit poll data on Election Day, and the resulting traffic crashed the site numerous times. George W. Bush and Al Gore are #8 and #10, respectively. Election tension also sends conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh up to #14, by far his highest rank ever.

George W. Bush actually inches ahead of Al Gore in total searches this week, 53.5 percent to 46.5 percent. Some Lycos users jumped the gun to search for terms like President George W. Bush and Bush inauguration.

The electoral brouhaha also led to dramatic increases in searches for news organizations. CNN, with over 1000 percent growth in searches over last week, would rank #2 if included on this week's list. (We don't include company names on the Lycos 50 -- see our FAQ for more details.) USA Today and ABC News were also suddenly very popular, but it seems CNN is the runaway leader when it comes to news online.

In tomorrow's report we'll take a closer look at which news organizations are most popular for election news. Meanwhile, for the latest news and commentary on the Florida recount, we invite you to visit Lycos News or the recount report at TerraLycos.



-- Sign (of@the.times), November 14, 2000.


Based on the Lycos poll, then, it's pretty clear that our 43rd President should be Britney Spears.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), November 14, 2000.

Woo hoo!!! We're Number 24!!

(Kewl; we beat out 'N Sync :-))

-- Patricia (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), November 14, 2000.


Dragonball Z (3)and Gundam Wing (27) are both anime cartoons on Cartoon Network's Toonami show. They're both done in seriel form, and my kids are addicted to them. OKay..me too. They're really fun. Nice way to take a break from the stress of everyday life. I'm glad to see them up there! Un-belie-vable!

-- Goku Fan (kritter@adelphia.net), November 14, 2000.

http://50.lycos.com/111500.html

Who's Hot in
Election News?

News flash: CNN dominates the major news organizations online.

That's the verdict of our tally of news searches during last week's el ection brouhaha. The 20 most popular TV news networks and newspapers are below, with the percentage of searches each organization got among the top 20:

  41.3%  CNN
  14.2%  The Drudge Report
  10.7%  MSNBC
  5.9%   ABC News
  5.2%   New York Times

  4.7%   Fox News
  4.1%   USA Today
  2.6%   Washington Post
  2.1%   CBS News
  1.9%   NBC News

  1.1%   Miami Herald
  1.1%   Wall Street Journal
  0.9%   Los Angeles Times
  0.9%   C-SPAN
  0.8%   Chicago Tribune

  0.7%   Boston Globe
  0.7%   Florida newspapers
  0.6%   Dallas Morning News
  0.3%   New York Daily News
  0.2%   Orlando Sentinel

And no, don't bother asking for a search recount.

CNN got a whopping 41% of the top 20 searches, and if you throw out Matt Drudge (as ABC just did) the CNN number gets close to 50%. As noted in yesterday's report, CNN would have been #2 on this week's Lycos 50 if we didn't exclude commercial entities. That's amazing.

The Drudge Report isn't a true news site, after all, and most of the Drudge action last week was due to his promise to release early editions of the exit polls reports. Still, 14.2% (nearly three times the New York Times) is quite a comment on the Drudge's tidbit- mongering power.

And: Web users heavily favor TV news sites over newspaper sites. Four out of five newshounds turned to a TV network site instead of a newspaper site. How come? Perhaps Web users figure an older electronic medium (TV) will know better how to use a newer electronic medium (the Web)?

And though last week's news was all about Florida, nearly 98% of Web users turned to national news sites instead of local Florida sites. We included the term "Florida newspapers" in this group on the assumption that lots of people would be searching for local angles. But instead Web users turned to CNN, MSNBC (a very strong showing) and eight other national outlets before the Miami Herald.

Even with the power of the Internet to bring any local paper to your desk, people prefer typing in a famous national name like CNN (or Lycos News!) to hunting up the local experts.

*   *   *


-- Sign (of@the.times), November 16, 2000.


Even with the power of the Internet to bring any local paper to your desk, people prefer typing in a famous national name like CNN (or Lycos News!) to hunting up the local experts.

Don't overlook the Palm Beach Post. There's a depth of detail about what's happening election-wise in Palm Beach county that you won't find anywhere else.

-- One out of a handful of (key@election.sites), November 17, 2000.


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