Yahoo searches topped by Michael Jackson this year

Capturing the top slot on Yahoo, Jackson ended Britney Spears’ four year dominance and knocked down President Barack Obama from the top 10 list.

Jackson the biggest star this year
Jackson had died on June 25 this year. Since then the king of pop has garnered the most Web traffic.

In a statement, Yahoo stated, "Michael Jackson's death broke many records on Yahoo. His memorial was the single most streamed event in Yahoo's history, with five million total streams."

Until Jackson’s death due to drug overdose, Obama’s inauguration led Yahoo search in terms of traffic. But when the news of Jackson’s death broke, the “traffic was overwhelming”, stated Vera Chan, web trend analyst at Yahoo Inc.

The death had elements of mystery, tragedy, shock, and sadness. Until today, the investigation is going on and the case remains unresolved, added Chan.

Others topping the list
The top ten list was largely dominated by celebrities.

Twilight--the vampire book and movie series--was the second most searched term on Yahoo. Recently, a sequel to Twilight, named New Moon, has been released. The movie has broken box office records.

At No. 3 was World Wrestling Entertainment. The next seven in the top 10 searches included: Megan Fox, an actress who starred in the movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"; Britney Spears; Naruto,a character of Japanese art form called anime; American Idol, a television series; Kim Kardashian, a member of the family having their own reality television series; NASCAR, an automobile racing league; and RuneScape, an online video game.

Who fell out of the list?
The breaking news got the most searches this year, so there were many who fell out the list, which had been dominated by celebrities last year.

Obama, who was at third position in 2008, fell to 44th position in the 2009 list. Others who could make to the top ten positions this year included Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, and Angelina Jolie.

Yahoo’s ranking of what was searched the most may not been the best barometer as it is a distant second to Google, which dominates the market, with approximately 70 percent of searches, but this has surely provided us an insight into our culture’s pulse.

Google is also planning to release its list of most popular searches later this month.