It's not some weird gamer fantasy involving Britney Spears and a popular console and its accessories, but rather a more substantial defeat for the "all-powerful" pop singer.
At the end of each year Yahoo release their so-called Buzz Index, which rates the popularity of search terms used throughout the year. According to Yahoo then, the popular Sony console was the most commonly used search term in 2002, leaving Britney lonely in second place.
The top search terms overall, involved gaming, movies and popular music indicating that the vast majority of web surfers are young people. What is even more astonishing is that experts claim that lists such as the Buzz Index, can provide a useful insight into the direction in which fads and fashions may be heading, long before they hit the mainstream.
The rule of PS2 in the search engine is a direct result of the strong hold the console has on the gaming market. With 40 million units already sold, PS2's Yahoo dominance is almost self expanatory.
Britney finds herself in second place but can console herself in the thought that she is way ahead of her nemesis, Christina Aguillera and from other female pop music stars such as Shakira and Avril Lavigne.
What may seem a surprise to many is the third placed Dragon ball Z. The world - wide success of Japanese animation has reached unprecedented heights and the list reflects exactly that. Although not at mainstream level quite yet, Dragon Ball is an anime or cartoon series which first ran in Japan in 1984 and has since captivated a global audience. More than 500 episodes of the series have been produced and it has led to a comic, video game and action figures.
One popular search term of days-gone-by, Napster was off the list as would be expected, but file-sharing was still well - represented with both Kazaa and Morpheus featuring in the top ten.
The complete Yahoo Buzz Index Top Ten, is as follows:
1: PlayStation 2
2: Britney Spears
3: Dragon Ball Z
4: Kazaa
5: Eminem
6: WWE
7: Morpheus
8: Internal Revenue Service
9: Jennifer Lopez
10: Harry Potter
