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Web's Most Wanted Awards 2003

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 with Aaron Schatz
The Lycos 50 Daily Report
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KaZaA: Web's Most Wanted 2003

December 10, 2003

Napster paved the way, but the most popular file-swapping software of all time is KaZaA, which this year overthrows Dragonball to stand as the number one search term of 2003 with Web users.

Since Napster was introduced in 2000, there have been a succession of file-swapping software programs. At all times, there was always one program that dominated the others in searches. First it was Napster, which ended as the #3 term of 2001. When the government took Napster down, that led to the rise of Morpheus, the #5 term of 2002. Then Morpheus had troubles and was replaced as the dominant software by the capitalization-challenged KaZaA and its spyware-free cousin, KaZaA Lite.

KaZaA shot up the Lycos 50 in mid-2002 and ended last year as the #64 term of 2002. This year, it spent 15 weeks as the number one search term on our weekly list and only dropped out of the top five for two weeks during the Iraq War when The Lycos 50 was dominated by war-related search terms. During 2003, KaZaA received twice as many searches as all other file-swapping softwares put together. Only one other file swapper, WinMX (#86), makes the top 100. Napster falls from #49 to #165, while Audiogalaxy, which was #74 for 2002, falls out of the top 500 terms.

Dragonball falls from two straight years at #1 to the #3 spot, and in between comes the resurgent Britney Spears at #2. Actually, Britney had fallen out of the weekly top ten by the middle of 2003, but in August she climbed back to the top following a succession of publicity stunts generating oodles of queries from curious Lycos users. Between her topless photos on the covers of Elle Magazine (U.K. edition) and Rolling Stone, her bottomless photo on the cover of Esquire and most significantly, her kiss with Madonna (#84) during the MTV Video Music Awards, Web users were searching for Britney one more time.

2003 was also a very significant year for huge stories that dominated Internet traffic for weeks at a time. The two biggest stories we have tracked since we began the Lycos 50 in 1999 were the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 2000 election and recount, but the next three biggest events -- if you count searches over a two- to three-week period -- all occurred in 2003. They were the War in Iraq (#15), the rape allegation against NBA star Kobe Bryant (#6), and the Paris Hilton sex tape. (#4)

March and April saw Lycos inundated for searches related to the war. This was a more conventionally fought war than the one in Afghanistan last year, and for the first time in history people could follow the news of the war in real time through the Internet. In particular, people at offices without access to television used the Internet to keep up to date on the latest news. The Internet also significantly changed the way people followed the Iraq War because of the availability of foreign news sources offering differing opinions of the actions taken by the United States. Lycos users searched for newspapers from around the world, such as Le Monde, Arab News, and The Jerusalem Post.

By far the most-searched news source from outside the United States was the Arabic Al-Jazeera cable news network. Whenever information is not available through conventional news sources, we've found that Internet searches multiply, and this is what happened when the video of American prisoners of war captured in Iraq became available through the Al-Jazeera website. For a brief period in 2003, Al-Jazeera searches were three times more popular than searches for sex.

The desire to find information not given by conventional news sources also drove many of the searches in July and August that made Kobe Bryant the highest-searched male of 2003. During these months, over half of the searches for the Kobe Bryant rape case searched not for Bryant himself but for information about the name and biography of his accuser. These searches demonstrated a major dilemma for high-profile sexual assault cases in the Internet era. With so much information available online, and so little policing of what sites are publishing, no high-profile rape victim can count on remaining anonymous. Major news organizations kept the woman's name and picture private but independent websites and radio talk show hosts revealed this woman's name and stories about her past that may or may not be true. The accuser actually finished the year as the sixth most-searched woman of 2003, with more searches than Anna Kournikova (#37), Christina Aguilera (#25), or Madonna, but only one of six searches asked for her by name.

The end of 2003 has been dominated by celebrity scandals like the Prince Charles rumors (#156), the Michael Jackson (#73) arrest, and, most significantly, the Paris Hilton sex tape. Interest in the debutante party girl had been growing gradually all year, and she finally appeared in the Lycos 50 for the first time in October. But once the homemade video of her having sex with ex-boyfriend Rick Solomon was released on the Internet in November, searches for Hilton exploded. It's just the latest example of how search activity goes sky-high whenever someone we don't expect to see naked appears naked, or is rumored to be naked, on the Internet. During the second week of November, Paris Hilton and the sex tape generated more search activity than all of the search terms from number two through number 15 combined.

On the entertainment front, the significant development of 2003 was a higher-than-usual number of stars who seemingly came out of nowhere to take prominent places in pop culture. Actually, in the case of Clay Aiken (#24), one star literally came out of nowhere. In January, Aiken was a 24-year-old just out of college and working with the mentally disabled in North Carolina. By midsummer, he was one of America's biggest musical superstars thanks to American Idol (#30), and for the year he finishes as the third most-searched male on the Internet behind only Kobe Bryant and rapper 50 Cent (#18) -- another star who never received searches until late 2002.

What's most astonishing about Aiken's popularity is that his fan base, perceived as consisting of teenage girls, actually consists primarily of women aged 30 to 50. Those teenage girls instead turned their attention in 2003 to two new musical stars, Canadian rocker Avril Lavigne (#51) and sitcom-actress-turned-singer-and-movie-star Hilary Duff (#61). Out-of-nowhere entertainment stars also included the Russian pop group t.A.T.u. (#39) and the goth-rock band Evanescence (#71).

OTHER BIG BREAKOUTS OF 2003: Pop psychologist Dr. Phil, Atkins competitor The South Beach Diet, Japanese cartoon Inuyasha, maturing teen queens The Olsen Twins, wrestling babe Torrie Wilson, Jamaican dancehall rapper Sean Paul, porn star-turned-politician Mary Carey, rockers Coldplay, jazz-pop chanteuse Norah Jones, and celebrity dirt website The Smoking Gun.

HOT IN 2002, NOT HOT IN 2003: all file-swapping software except KaZaA, the sex tape scandal of Asian politician Chu Mei-Feng, pop star Shakira, actor Josh Hartnett, Summer Olympics, toy and cartoon Zoids, rock bands Incubus, Blink-182, and System of a Down, Super Bowl commercials, and searches related to the September 11 attacks on America.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: If you are looking for tattoos, the term which ranked #3 in 2002 and #4 in 2001, we made an editorial decision in June to retire the term from the Lycos 50 after 200 weeks. The searches had become so constant that tattoos belonged on the list of generic subjects like lyrics and games that we don't include on our weekly list.

ONES TO WATCH 2004: There hasn't been a movie in years as controversial as Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which is already getting lots of searches... Other hot 2004 films getting searches already include Brad Pitt in Troy, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Catwoman, which also should make Halle Berry a summer staple of the Lycos 50... Rock band Nine Inch Nails gets plenty of searches but has never made the Lycos 50; that should change when 2004 brings their first album of new material since 1999... Chad Michael Murray looks like the next hot teen heartthrob... The latest game in the Grand Theft Auto series is scheduled for fall 2004... Since female artists usually get even bigger once they go solo (example: Beyonce), expect big things from No Doubt's Gwen Stefani in 2004... A couple of previously unknown athletes become huge stars during each Olympics, and two U.S. names to watch are gymnasts Chellsie Memmel and Carly Patterson... Anti-impotence drug Cialis is hugely popular in Europe and is coming to challenge Viagra in the U.S.

ONES TO WATCH 2003: Our predictions for 2003 turned out to be quite successful. Daredevil boosted Jennifer Garner to stardom, even though the movie didn't do as well as expected. The Matrix Reloaded and Terminator 3 both made plenty of money. LeBron James went from high school prospect to the NBA player with the most-purchased jersey. Beyonce became a true R&B superstar with her first solo album. On the other hand, computer game Doom III was delayed and never came out, and actor Eric Bana went nowhere as star of The Hulk.

KEEP WATCHING: That's not all for the Web's Most Wanted awards. Check the box on the top right for our other lists including top TV and movies, top men and women, and top fads, updated through December 18. Plus, the Lycos 50 will still be updated each week through December.

Web's Most Wanted 2003

The Top 100 items of the year 2003, with last year's rank in parentheses.

1. KaZaA (2)
2. Britney Spears (4)
3. Dragonball (1)
4. Paris Hilton (-)
5. IRS (7)
6. Kobe Bryant (-)
7. Christmas (9)
8. NFL (6)
9. Pamela Anderson (10)
10. Brooke Burke (34)

11. Las Vegas (11)
12. The Matrix: Reloaded/Revolutions (-)
13. Harry Potter (13)
14. Atkins Diet (76)
15. Iraq War (-)
16. NASCAR (23)
17. WWE (18)
18. 50 Cent (-)
19. Halloween (8)
20. Jennifer Lopez (24)

21. Kobe Bryant's Accuser (-)
22. Yu-Gi-Oh! (32)
23. Lord of the Rings (15)
24. Clay Aiken (-)
25. Christina Aguilera (55)
26. Eminem (29)
27. Taxes (14)
28. The Bible (21)
29. Baseball (28)
30. American Idol (-)

31. Final Fantasy (16)
32. Viagra (-)
33. Marijuana (22)
34. Al-Jazeera (-)
35. X2: X-Men United (-)
36. Golf (35)
37. Anna Kournikova (12)
38. NBA (37)
39. t.A.T.u. (-)
40. Halloween Costumes (42)

41. Space Shuttle Disaster (-)
42. New York City (38)
43. Prom Dresses (39)
44. Mortgage Rates (58)
45. Good Charlotte (-)
46. Valentine's Day (47)
47. Federal Do Not Call List (-)
48. NASA (77)
49. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (19)
50. Carmen Electra (90)

51. Avril Lavigne (82)
52. The Sims (36)
53. Tupac Shakur (64)
54. Weight Watchers (95)
55. Playstation 2 (26)
56. Powerball (62)
57. SARS (-)
58. Pokemon (41)
59. Neopets (78)
60. Hilary Duff (-)

61. Barbie (67)
62. Diabetes (69)
63. FAFSA (-)
64. London (79)
65. Prom Hairstyles (75)
66. Diets (87)
67. Chicago (61)
68. Star Wars (27)
69. Nelly (45)
70. B2K (-)

71. Evanescence (-)
72. Metallica (-)
73. Michael Jackson (-)
74. Apollo 11 (-)
75. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (56)
76. The Simpsons (59)
77. 2 Fast 2 Furious (-)
78. Easter (73)
79. Xbox (53)
80. Orlando Bloom (89)

81. U.S. Army (-)
82. Martin Luther King, Jr. (66)
83. AIDS (-)
84. Madonna (-)
85. Anorexia (40)
86. WinMX (57)
87. Skateboarding (43)
88. Justin Timberlake (-)
89. Oprah Winfrey (70)
90. Paris (72)

91. Civil War (51)
92. Survivor (46)
93. Adaware (-)
94. Linkin Park (68)
95. World War II (44)
96. Star Trek (63)
97. Half-Life Counter-Strike (93)
98. William Shakespeare (65)
99. College Football (98)
100. Beyonce (-)