In tune with the fast approaching festive season, the Lycos portals and search engine this week published its take on the top gift searches its facilities have handled, and judging by the results you won’t go far wrong in getting poker-related presents for your near and dear ones.
The top 10 of the 50 most popular Internet search results for the week ending Nov. 18, 2006 looked like this:
1) Poker
2) Pokemon
3) iPod
4) Neopets
5) Barbie
6) Harry Potter
7) Blackjack
8) Baccarat
9) Bratz
10) Playstation 3
Poker and specific poker-related items like poker chips top the 2006 list of most-searched toys with web users for the second consecutive year. Online interest in poker jumped 316 percent over the past year, generating 308 percent more searches than the second most popular toy, Pokemon. Searches for Pokemon have increased 169 percent from 2005, as it overtakes Playstation as the second most popular toy with web users in 2006.
Gaming consoles, while still popular, see a decrease in search activity in 2006, with Playstation falling to number 10 on this year’s list. Search interest in Playstation declined 14 percent since this time in 2005, while searches for Xbox dropped 17 percent, and Nintendo fell 25 percent. However, for the sixth straight year, Playstation remains more popular than all other gaming platforms, generating 119 percent more search interest than the Xbox 360, and 497 percent more popular than Nintendo.
Making its second consecutive appearance is Apple’s iPod, as searches jump 17 percent over the past year, with the iPod Nano and iPod Video generating the bulk of the search activity. If web search activity is any indication, the iPod Nano will be more popular this holiday season, generating 471 percent more searches than the iPod Video.