WALTHAM, Mass., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Lycos, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com/), a leading provider of search, community and technology lifestyle destinations and a wholly owned subsidiary of Daum Communications, Corp. (KOSDAQ: 035720), a premier Internet portal in Korea, today announced the following information from The Lycos 50(TM), the 50 most popular Internet search results for the week ending Feb. 19, 2005. For a complete list of The Lycos 50(TM) and for in-depth text of The Lycos 50 Daily Report, go to http://50.lycos.com/. Readers of The Lycos 50 can also share their thoughts on Internet trends and pop culture on The Lycos 50 Blog located at http://lycos50.tripod.com/blog/.
The Lycos 50(TM) Top 10 Search Terms for the Week Ending Feb. 19, 2005:
1) Valentine's Day 6) Candice Michelle
2) Pamela Anderson 7) Jennifer Lopez
3) Paris Hilton 8) Carmen Electra
4) Britney Spears 9) Debbie Gibson
5) Clay Aiken 10) Poker
Notes of Interest:
PETA spokesperson and web favorite, Pamela Anderson (#2) rises a few notches this week thanks to censors in China. Anderson is causing a search ruckus due to her latest anti-fur campaign poster in which she appears nude, covered only by her arms next to the tagline "Give Fur the Cold Shoulder." But Shanghai authorities ruled citizens of China won't get to see the ad in its entirety, and can only view Anderson from the hips up. And once something is forbidden to view offline, it creates fervor online, with search activity for Anderson up slightly ahead of Paris Hilton (#3) for the first time ever. Meanwhile, Carmen Electra (#8) shows women how to "strip away the pounds" with her new fitness DVD -- Fit to Strip Volume 2, the latest Hollywood fitness craze of striptease aerobics. Electra is also heading up the Naked Women's Wrestling League, promoting a search for lucky women to join the ranks of other wrestling divas.
Other Notes of Interest:
Debbie Gibson (#9) sees the biggest jump in search activity, moving from number 39 last week into the top 10 on this week's list. Searches for Gibson are up following news of her recent pictorial in the current issue of Playboy, and her appearance last week on The Howard Stern Radio Show. Searches for Gibson are up 200 percent this week. Ironically, as she tries to shed her youthful image, searches for Debbie Gibson are 5 times more popular than searches for Deborah Gibson.
And the Online Winner is ...
Searches for the Academy Awards(TM) are up 560 percent this week, and if web search activity is any indication, Natalie Portman will be taking home Oscar gold for her best supporting actress performance in Closer. Portman receives six times more searches than the closest best supporting actress nominee, Virginia Madsen of Sideways. As for best supporting actor, Jamie Foxx is a clear winner with web users, generating more search activity than all the other best supporting actor nominees combined, for his role in Collateral. Web darling Johnny Depp also receives more searches than all the other best actor nominees combined for Finding Neverland, while Hilary Swank knocks out her competition to score the most searches online as best actress for her performance in Million Dollar Baby. Search activity for best picture proves to be a much tighter race, with Ray generating slightly more than one percent of searches than the next most popular movie, Million Dollar Baby.
