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Hollywood Starlets, Pop Princesses Reign On Yahoo Web Searches(Monitor, The (McAllen, TX) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan. 2--McALLEN -- When Paris Hilton announced her split with fiance Paris Latsis a few months ago, and was spotted with Greek shipping heir Stavros Niachros III a few weeks later, Lilly De La Garza kept close tabs on the celebutante using a quick click of the mouse. In fact, De La Garza, 26, of Weslaco, frequently searches several online communities that cater to "celeb" gossip. So it is perhaps no surprise to the University of Texas-Pan American graduate that Paris Hilton cracked Yahoo's overall Top 10 Searches in 2005, released earlier this week. For the last four years, the global Internet company has released its list of the most popular searches based on results selected from millions of Yahoo users, the company said. For the third year in a row, pop princess Britney Spears swept the competition at No. 1. "It was probably the birth of her baby, because she's has-been news to me," De La Garza joked. "The baby. It's all about the baby." Although Spears is on a work hiatus, the birth of baby Sean Preston Spears Federline in September sent tabloids on a paparazzi shooting spree for a glimpse of the 6-pound, 11-ounce baby boy. Still, some found the new addition anticlimactic. De La Garza says she was surprised by Spears' popularity, especially with so many other megastars making headlines, referring mostly to the demise of golden couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, and his pairing with Angelina Jolie. Pitt and Jolie, though, did come in at No. 6 on Yahoo's top news searches. "I still love Paris," she said. "I promise I'm not a stalker, but I just heard she was on the beach in Maui with her family. "The celebrity lifestyle intrigues me," De La Garza said. "I want to know where Paris is at, what she's up to, or who she's dating. I'll admit it is a guilty pleasure." This year's list also included notable comebacks from songstress Mariah Carey and pop-punk-turned-political icons Green Day, both of whom cracked Yahoo's top five. "The Yahoo Search 2005 Top Searches shows us that people are fixated on the activities of pop culture icons and they're turning to Yahoo to research the latest on their favorite celebrities," said Yahoo Buzz Index expert Erik Gunther in a statement. "…it appears that people this year are looking more at talent than controversy." A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant number to make the number easier to read, according to www.buzz.yahoo.com. Yearly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for the entire year. According to the Google Zeitgeist report, a page regularly updated to reflect tidbits of information related to the search behavior of Google users, pop culture scraped the bottom of their Top 10 list, with the exception of Janet Jackson who came out on top over Hurricane Katrina and last year's devastating tsunami. Zeitgeist search statistics are automatically generated based on the millions of searches conducted on Google over a given period of time -- weekly, monthly, and annually and individual searcher's information is not available or accessible to researchers, according to information at www.google.com/zeitgeist. The Zeitgeist report's sole purpose is to provide a cumulative snapshot of queries users are asking -- some over time, some within country domains, and some on Google.com. Although online news searches might be on the more serious side, searching the web for current events isn't always on the to-do list, especially for 12-year-old Crystal Zielinski of McAllen. She'd rather go online to catch up on her favorite rapper, 50 Cent -- No. 2 on the Yahoo Top 10. "I love his music, but now it's more popular, probably because it's easier to read stuff on the Internet than in a magazine," said the Milam Elementary student while bobbing her head to the East coast rapper-turned-actor at a Barnes & Noble listening station. "He's hot too." But when it comes to anything Britney Spears or Paris Hilton, Zielinski would rather stick to Hilton's perfume. "That's all I like about her," she smiled. ------ Miriam Ramirez covers eastern Hidalgo County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4441. |