Poker Was King of All Search Terms in 2006

People searched for "poker" more than any other term in 2006.

In its annual "top 50," the search engine Lycos.com announced that more people dialed up its site and searched for poker more than anything else in 2006. Poker beat out MySpace (2), Pamela Anderson (4), Paris Hilton (5), golf (8) and many other terms to land on the top. Last year, poker was the third-most searched term.

The Lycos Top 50 is a sort of barometer for fads in America, but poker seems to have by-passed that label in the last few years with its consistent spot in the top 10 of the annual compilation. It's been in the top 10 for the last three years (10 in 2004) and only Anderson and Hilton have been there longer.

There's no set definition for when fads become a mainstay, but it seems like poker has done it, despite the fact that Lycos named poker as the top fad in 2004, 2005, and 2006. It's also one of a handful of terms in the second tier of the "Lycos Elite," which is made up of terms that have been in the top 50 for at least 50 weeks.

More than 90 million people use Lycos to search the Internet each month.

Poker also came out on top in the toys and games category for the second straight year, with more people searching for poker chip sets or tables this holiday season than iPod, Barbie, or PlayStation 3. Baccarat and blackjack also cracked the top 10 search list for toys and games.

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