Dragonball continues to lead the ratings on the Cartoon Network's Toonami Block and, after slipping to number two for a week thanks to the popularity of Mother's Day, has regained its position on top of the Lycos survey of most popular Internet searches.  Dragonball has been on the Lycos 50 for the entire period that the popular Internet search engine has been publishing the list -- 92 straight weeks.  Only seven other topics have made the list every week and three of them are high profile bimbos Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson, and Jennifer Lopez.  The other four are: Pokemon, tattoos, the WWF, and Las Vegas. 

 

Dragonball's dominance on the Lycos 50 has been especially evident this year.  Pokemon ruled the list during its heyday, but it only recently reentered the bottom half of the top ten after spending some time well down the list.  Can retailers use the Lycos 50 to decide which licensed items to carry?  Well, to a certain degree, though as some items like Pokemon decline in merchandise sales, fans continue to search the net for them.  But remember, although some Pokemon merchandise may be remaindered, the WotC Pokemon cards (see 'Top Ten Games') continue to be ranked in the top five products in the Games category.  As for spotting new trends on the Lycos 50, unless something is truly an overnight sensation that creates a huge stir, it probably won't make until it is already well established in the marketplace.  The heavily hyped Pearl Harbor film from Disney made its first appearance on the list this week at #27, and will probably climb higher after it debuts, but obviously, retailers would not want to wait until a film showed up on the Lycos list to plan how to take advantage of it.  Rather than a place to spot new trends, the Lycos 50 is better seen as way of keeping tabs on already dominant properties such as Dragonball.  While Pokemon's spot on the list has shifted considerably, largely dependent on the timing of the release of new series of Pokemon cards, Dragonball has remained consistently in the top two or three spots for the past six months.