Lycos Announces Top Political Search Terms of Election '08; It's Palin in a Landside

Lycos Announces Top Political Search Terms of Election '08; It's Palin in a
Landside
The Lycos 50(TM) for Week Ending Oct. 18, 2008

WALTHAM, Mass., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- 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. 18, 2008. For more information on this week's list and commentary, go to
http://50.lycos.com or follow the Lycos 50 on Twitter. 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/.
Top 15 Political Search Queries for Week Ending Oct. 18, 2008:

1) Sarah Palin 8) War on Terror
2) Barack Obama 9) Republican
3) Tina Fey 10) Democrat
4) John McCain 11) ACORN
5) Presidential Debate 12) Joe Biden
6) Economy 13) Polling Numbers
7) Healthcare 14) Joe the Plumber
15) Colin Powell

With less than two weeks before the Nov. 4 election, the most popular
political search term top of mind with web users continues to be Sarah Palin.
This week, Gov. Palin generates one-third more search activity than Democratic
presidential candidate Barack Obama, while interest in Palin outnumbers
interest in her GOP Presidential running mate John McCain nearly three to one.
Senator Joe Biden is the least searched of the political candidates,
registering search activity far below Palin, Obama and McCain, receiving as
many searches as song lyrics and school loans.
For the past six weeks, Gov. Palin has generated more search activity than
all other candidates, and during the week of Sept. 4, the GOP VP candidate
drove more search interest than Hurricane Gustav and the DNC combined. At one
point, Gov. Palin's daughter Bristol Palin and Bristol's boyfriend and father
of her unborn child, Levi Johnston, were scoring bigger search numbers than
Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus.
At the height of her online popularity during the week of Sept. 11, the
most popular Sarah Palin-related search queries included: Sarah Palin Speech,
Sarah Palin family, Sarah Palin candidate, Sarah Palin Down syndrome, and
Sarah Palin pregnant daughter.
Sen. Barack Obama entered the Lycos 50 for the first time during the week
of June 11. At that time, the most popular Barack Obama-related search
queries included Barack Obama T-shirts, Barack Obama Campaign and Barack Obama
Speeches. Over the past two weeks, the most popular Barack Obama search
queries now include: Who is Barack Obama, Obama's Advisors, Barack Obama Facts
and Obama Tax Plan. Web users also appear to have very little difficulty
spelling the Democratic presidential candidate's last name, but his first name
is presenting a bit of a challenge. The most popular misspellings of Barack
include Borack, Berack and Barak.
If web search activity is any indication, the three issues most critical
to voters include the Economy, Healthcare and the War on Terror, in that
order. Search activity for ACORN has also doubled over the past two weeks,
while online interest in Gen. Colin Powell jumps 210 percent following his
recent endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama. But it's Joe the Plumber who
continues to resonate with web users, up 380 percent since he hit the national
spotlight during the Oct. 15 final Presidential Debate.
About Lycos, Inc.
Lycos, Inc. operates search and social media web sites that foster online
communities, including the new Lycos Cinema community, bringing people
together one flick at a time. Other Lycos products and sites include
Lycos.com, Hotbot.com, Tripod.com, Angelfire.com, Gamesville.com, Lycos Mail,
Webon, WhoWhere.com and The Lycos 50(TM). Lycos, Inc. (www.lycos.com) is a
wholly owned subsidiary of Daum Communications Corp., a leading search and
Internet portal in Korea. Lycos was acquired by Korean Daum Communications
Corp. in October 2004 and has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Daum Communications Corp. is traded on the KOSDAQ: 035720, www.daum.net.
Lycos(R) is a registered trademark of Lycos, Inc. All other product or
service marks mentioned herein are those of Daum Communications Corp., Lycos,
Inc. or their respective owners. All rights reserved.
SOURCE Lycos, Inc.

Kathy O'Reilly of LYCOS, Inc., +1-781-370-2853, Kathy.O'Reilly@lycos-inc.com