The Tech Crunch Website has revealed Yahoo's Top Ten search queries of 2007 and Viz Media's Naruto, which came in at #4, was the lone anime property to make the top ten. On the much smaller Lycos search engine Naruto was the top anime property at #15 for last week, but not the only one in the Lycos top 25 -- Pokemon came in at #19 and Dragon Ball Z followed at #23.
In 2005 and 2006 Naruto did not make the Yahoo Top Ten, which indicates that Viz Media's Naruto Nation campaign (see 'Naruto Manga Goes Nuclear') has pumped up the property's profile. Naruto has been the #1 manga property on ICv2's 'Top Manga Properties' list for the past two years, and the Naruto anime, which is shown regularly on the Cartoon Network, was the #4 on ICv2's most recent 'Top 25 Anime Properties' list.
Even the village idiot could figure out that the unfortunate underwear-eschewing Britney Spears would top the Yahoo list for 2007 followed by the ever-popular WWE and the spectacularly vacuous Paris Hilton. Beyonce (#5), Lindsay Lohan (#6), Fergie (#9) and Jessica Alba (#10) all contributed to the decidedly distaff nature of this year's list.
While Fantasy Football, which draws on the immense popularity of the NFL is no surprise at #8, some might not be too familiar with RuneScape, the java-based MMORPG that doesn't strain system resources and is available via both free (over 10 million active now) and paid (over 1 million) accounts, and which managed to come in at #7 on the 2007 Yahoo list.
#15 on This Week's Lycos
Posted by ICv2 on December 4, 2007 @ 11:00 pm CT