Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Execution of American Paul Johnson Is Most-Searched Event
WALTHAM, Mass. -- Paul Johnson, the defense contractor who was murdered by an al-Qaeda group in Saudi Arabia, is the new No. 1 search term on the Lycos 50 list for the week ending June 19. The Al-Qaeda group that claimed responsibility posted photographs of the beheaded body on a militant Web site, causing a surge in search activity for al-Qaeda (#28), re-entering this week's list.Johnson's execution also sparked renewed interest in the Nick Berg (#7) killing, doubling search activity for Berg over last week. Although searches for Johnson were huge, they were not as large as the search activity following the murder of Nick Berg (#7) in Iraq.The types of searches involving Johnson include Paul Johnson, Paul Johnson Saudi Arabia, Paul Johnson Beheading, Paul Johnson murder and Paul Johnson pictures. During the same time two day time period, following news of their executions, the amount of searches for Nick Berg was 12 times higher than for Paul Johnson, partly due to the fact that the public was highly exposed to the plight of Johnson after the militants gave 72 hours for the governments to respond to their demands.The top 50 search terms, from No. 1 to No. 10, are Paul Johnson, Paris Hilton, Clay Aiken, Britney Spears, President Ronald Reagan, KaZaA, Nick Berg, Neopets, Severina Vuckovic and Harry Potter.News of the Johnson killing caused a surge in search activity for the Drudge Report (#42) and Al Jazeera (#45), as both re-entered this week's Lycos 50, with Web users searching for photos, news and any video of Johnson's murder. Traditional news organizations also saw a spike in search activity on Friday and into Saturday of last week as news of Johnson's killing began to surface. Search activity jumped 26% for Fox News Television and 40% for NBC News. ABC News.com jumped 23% and MSNBC News.com saw and increase of 36%. Harry Potter (#10) star Emma Watson (#19) saw the biggest rise in search activity, jumping from number 47 last week to land just behind Lindsay Lohan (#17) and ahead of the Olsen Twins (#22) and Hilary Duff (#24). Watson is the only Potter star to make The Lycos 50.Terra Lycos is a global Internet group, with a presence in 40 countries in 19 languages. The group, which resulted from Terra Networks S.A's acquisition of Lycos Inc. in October 2000, operates some of the most widely visited Web sites in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America, and is the largest access provider in Spain and Latin America.Visit Terra Lycos: www.lycos.com"