Paris Hilton. Paris Hilton. Paris Hilton.

Paris Hilton. There, Ive done it. Lined myself up to generate enormous web traffic. I can feel the hits coming now! You see, it was revealed to the world on Monday that Paris Hilton landed the No. 1 spot on the Lycos 50 Top Ten Search Terms for 2005 , and I want to be part of her success before its too late. But enough about Paris (although from the Lycos results it seems like there never can be enough about Paris. Or, to put it another way, Well always have Paris). Lets talk about Network Computing. The Lycos list prompted me to ask whats been at the top of our readers search lists in the last year. In the interest of full disclosure, this Top 10 list reflects some judgment calls; for instance, searches on both VoIP and voip have been grouped together into a single result.

Lets do a David Letterman and take it from the bottom:

#10: Windows Vista. Maybe readers are just keeping tabs on what year it really will ship. Maybe theyre hoping it solves some of the problems of winning search term #9.#9: Desktop management. The biggest chunk of that three year stretch between PC deployment and retirement is still a pain after all these years.#8: Salary averages. Misery loves company, right?#7: Fax servers. You like them, you really like them!#6: Firewall. Its basic security but new twists are being added, such as all-in-one devices that include firewalls and content filtering but also protect against viruses, worms, spyware, adware, spam, and do intrusion detection and prevention and more. Harried security managers take note. #5: Vulnerability scanner. Obsessed with security, are we? #4: Wireless. Actually if you add up every wireless-related search term in the top 50 for the year, from Bluetooth to wireless to WLAN to WiFi, this babys got legs enough to knock the #1 search term right off its keister. Taken together these results show momentum and reader interest in the wireless market at large.--but of course!#3: Bluetooth. Its not just for cell phones or laptops, but these days for jackets and backpacks, too. Bluetooth SIG executive director Michael Foley says 9.5 million Bluetooth-enabled products are shipped every week, double of what was being shipped in June this year#2: VoIP. Its coming, its cominghey, its really here!#1: IP address. IP Address? Well, welcome to the newbies! IT's future is in your hands.

Lycos has put the following terms, among others, on its list of ones to watch for 2006: Bird flu or Avian flu and teen TV drama, Degrassi, The Next Generation. Not at the top of my search listI hope the bird flu thing dies down and Im just a few years past watching Degrassi. What search terms (or the networking or other kind) will you be looking for in 2006 ? Let us know.