The Lycos 50 for Week Ending May 27, 2000; Memorial Day and Military Interest Peak, Gladiator's Russell Crowe Crushes Tom Cruise in Online Hits

Business Wire, May 31, 2000

Entertainment Editors

WALTHAM, Mass.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--May 31, 2000

The following information is from The Lycos 50(TM), the 50 most popular user searches for the week ending May 27, 2000. 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.

The Lycos 50(TM)Top 10 Search Terms For The Week Ending May 27, 2000

1) Pokemon                    6) Tattoos
2) Britney Spears             7) Napster
3) Dragonball                 8) Pamela Anderson
4) Eminem                     9) `N Sync
5) WWF                       10) Gundam Wing

Notes of Interest:

Memorial Day (#34) made its first-ever appearance on The Lycos 50, as military interest online. Also making the list were three wars: Vietnam (#43), World War II (#39) and the Civil War (#33), along with the WWII-related topic of the Holocaust (#46). User queries for each of these topics have been rising for the past two months. It isn't clear whether the rise in war queries is directly connected to Memorial Day or not. Over the next few weeks, as Memorial Day fades, and students go on summer break, these search terms may fade as well.

Crowe vs. Cruise:

Russell Crowe (#48) continues to dominate the top spot online for film stars as this summer's movie releases heat up. Crowe is now in his third week on The Lycos 50, thanks to his block-buster role in Gladiator (#32). Although this summer's other hugely anticipated hit, Mission Impossible 2 (#23) made The Lycos 50, its star Tom Cruise is nowhere to be found. Cruise received only 40 percent as many searches as Crowe. Ironically, Cruise' s Mission Impossible 2 sidekick cutie Thadie Newton did make the list landing at number 49. Ms. Newton got over twice as many searches as Mr. Cruise.

Napster Block:

The blacklist on Napster (#7) seems to be working, keeping it in the top 10. Among popular new user queries for Napster were: "Banned from Napster," "Napster Hack" and "Getting Around the Napster Ban."

New This Week:

Napster wannabe Gnutella, a sort of open source Napster, made its debut on the list at number 13.

About Lycos, Inc.

Founded in 1995, Lycos, Inc. is a leading Web media company and owner of the Lycos Network, one of the most visited hubs on the Internet reaching nearly one out of every two U.S. Web users. The Lycos Network is a unified set of Web sites, attracting a diverse audience by offering a variety of services, including leading Web search and navigation resources; Web community and communications services including free homepage building, free Web-based e-mail, clubs, chat, instant messaging; a personalized My Lycos start page; a comprehensive shopping center featuring more than 2,400 merchants; and an assortment of compelling content such as games, music, news, fun and educational information and activities for kids as well as information about investing, technology, entertainment, sports, small business, travel and more. The Lycos Network is composed of premium sites: Lycos.com, Tripod, WhoWhere, Angelfire, MailCity, HotBot, HotWired, Wired News, Webmonkey, Suck.com, Sonique, Quote, Gamesville and Lycos Zone. Lycos.com (http://www.lycos.com), "Your Personal Internet Guide," is dedicated to helping each individual user locate, retrieve and manage information tailored to his or her personal interests. Headquartered near Boston, in Waltham, Mass., Lycos, Inc. is a global Internet leader with a major presence throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America.

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