Internet searchers have had food and sports on their minds, as Lycos and Yahoo! have chronicled in their respective compilations of the weekly search terms. “Weight Watchers” weighed in at #1 on The Lycos 50 for the week ending March 27, 2004, with “Atkins Diet” following at #6 and “South Beach Diet” at #10.
Dean Tsouvalas, manager of content, Terra Lycos, comments on the rise of the dietary searches: “When we look at our search logs, we are overwhelmed by the extent of searches related to weight loss. We actually have seen a rise in the Weight Watchers searches over the past several weeks. Ironically, diet-related searches tend to rise immediately at the beginning of the year — with all the New Year’s resolutions — and then drop off by early February. But this year, diet searches have stayed high since January. Over the past two weeks, WW [Weight Watchers], Atkins and South Beach were all in the top ten. But WW started to pull away from the other two (three weeks ago), with searches steadily rising each week.”
None of the dietary terms made the Yahoo! Buzz Index for the week ending March 28, 2004, with searchers putting “NCAA Basketball” in the top position instead.
“Weight Watchers” is a relatively new entry on The Lycos 50, having spent only the last 4 consecutive weeks on the list, compared to “Atkins Diet” for 65 weeks, and “South Beach Diet” for 13. “Weight Watchers” also bounced “March Madness” from the top spot, where it dropped to #16.
“To be the #1 search term — beating out Paris Hilton, Clay Aiken and KaZaA — is a pretty big deal. WW actually generated 10 percent more search activity than Paris,” said Tsouvalas. “We don’t believe the rise in searches has anything to do with any one promotional plan WW is currently running. The reason we say this is because Web users are searching for more than 100 different queries for WW such as Weight Watcher Points, recipes, restaurant point guides etc.,” he continued.
Aside from the dietary terms, both The Lycos 50 and the Yahoo! Buzz Index heavily featured entertainment and celebrity-related searches. Women figured prominently with both lists carrying, “Britney Spears,” “Beyonce Knowles,” “Jessica Simpson,” “Paris Hilton,” “Christina Aguilera,” and “Janet Jackson.”
Found exclusively on the Yahoo! Index:
- “Passion of the Christ” at #9
- “Eminem” at #10
- “D-12” at #11
- “50 Cent” at #16
- “Linkin Park,” #17
- “Eamon,” #19
- “My Band” at #20
Among the search terms that appeared only on the Lycos list are: “Clay Aiken” (#3); “KaZaA” (#4); “Spring Break” (#7); “Dragonball” (#9); “Brooke Burke” (#11); “Pamela Anderson” (#12); “Poker” (#13); “Lord of the Rings” (#15); “Kobe Bryant” (#17); “Easter” (#19); and “Las Vegas (#20).
Both lists featured “WWE,” “The IRS,” “American Idol,” and “NASCAR.”
Check out how the search terms have changed over time:
Do Not Call Harry Potter?
Payment and Entertainment
War and Basketball
Touchdowns, Taxes, and Tragedy
Searches Mostly Entertainment-Related
Virus Becomes Most Popular
Debut of a Salesman
Dragonball Rolls Into First Place
World Cup Kicks Star Wars Out of Space
