2006: A Year about Nothing?

I just wrote my next column, which looks at the top searched terms of 2006, and the news terms grabbed me; it felt like nothing happened. I’ll post the full column Tuesday when it’s released, but in the meantime, I’ll share some excerpts, since I wrote over 2,000 words for what’s supposed to be a 750-word piece (if not shorter).

One part, that veered from the general theme of the column, discussed Lycos ranking "poker" as the top term of the year.

Poker? 2006 was also the year of Pokemon. Lycos also came
out with a list of top fads for the year, which included several of its top 10
search terms (Poker, MySpace, and video game RuneScape), but Pokemon, the top fad
of, oh, 1999, can’t return to the fad pool. Another question for Lycos: if
consumer interest in MySpace, iPods, and YouTube is still growing, how can you
declare them fads before seeing how they turn out next year? Lycos also picked
the Atkins Diet as a top fad – a good thing, since you might not have known the
fad really ended a year or two ago.

Lastly, while we’re calling spades spades
here, Lycos also included poker, blackjack, and baccarat, along with Pokemon,
iPod, and Harry Potter, among its top 10 most searched toys this holiday
season. If it’s defining toys that loosely, I’m amazed MySpace and golf
(another top search term of the year) weren’t somehow included.