Batman Tops Political Candidates as Most-Searched Halloween Costume on this Week's Lycos Top Search List

Actress Anne Hathaway, VP Candidate Joe Biden, "House," Among Big Search Gainers on Lycos

The Lycos 50(TM) for Week Ending Oct. 4, 2008

Lycos, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com/), a leading provider of social publishing, media and search services, today announced the following information from The Lycos 50(TM), the most popular Internet search terms and trends for the week ending Oct. 4, 2008. For more information on this week's list and commentary, 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/ and the Under the Red Carpet Blog at http://redcarpet.tripod.com/blog/ .

  Biggest Movers and Shakers for Week Ending Oct. 4, 2008:

1.  Halloween               555%
2.  Anne Hathaway           480%
3.  Danity Kane             415%
4.  Phish                   400%
5.  Costume Ideas           395%
6.  Joe Biden               333%
7.  OJ Simpson              300%
8.  Janet Jackson           265%
9.  Steve Fossett           210%
10. House                   175%

Search Gainers:

With Halloween fast approaching, search interest in Costume Ideas nearly quadruples. While there will be plenty of Obama, McCain and Sarah Palin costumes making appearances this Halloween, the most-searched costumes this year are influenced more by popular movie heroes and villains than politicians. This also marks the first time Harry Potter costumes did not make the top 10 list. It appears Harry has been replaced by the wildly popular Hannah Montana and High School Musical mania. And funny man Mike Myers' Love Guru may have tanked at the box office, but it's the 9th most popular costume based on web searches.

The Lycos 50(TM) Top 10 Most-Searched Halloween Costumes, Week Ending Oct. 4, 2008:

  1) Batman           6) Transformers
2) Indiana Jones    7) Hannah Montana
3) Joker            8) Sharpay - High School Musical
4) Iron Man         9) Love Guru
5) Hulk            10) Hellboy

Meanwhile, actress Anne Hathaway sees a bump in search interest, rising 480 percent following her recent guest host stint on Saturday Night Live. And the politician moving up the search logs this week is Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joe Biden, hot off his recent debate with his Republican rival, Gov. Sarah Palin. Search interest in Biden more than tripled following the highest rated vice presidential debate in US history. A record 70 million people watched the Biden/Palin debate, eclipsing the 52.4 million who watched the first presidential debate between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. But Sarah Palin continues to win the search wars as the only candidate to generate enough search activity to make the Lycos 50 Top Search list, coming in at number four this week, ahead of Facebook (#8) and Dancing with the Stars (#9).