LOS ANGELES - The US presidential election became the
most-searched item and Kim Kardashian was the most-searched person on
Yahoo! in a year when online searches were dominated by big news stories
and pop culture obsessions, the search engine company said on Monday.
The search term "election" topped the list of searches, led not only by
extensive media coverage but also widening conversation on online
social media platforms.
The term "political polls" was No. 8 of the top 10 Yahoo! searches of the year.
"The 2012 elections dominated the online searches, which is amazing
because if something is in the news, it's already accessible ... people
were really saturated by it, but even so, that was a key word that
people typed throughout the year," Vera Chan, Yahoo!'s web trend
analyst, said in a conference call.
Chan said
only two other news stories have topped the list in the past decade,
those being the death of Michael Jackson in 2009 and the BP oil spill in
2010.
"iPhone 5" came in at No. 2, which Chan
said was interesting "in a post-Steve Jobs era" because while Apple
Inc's iPhone has featured regularly in the top searches since the first
generation emerged in 2007, this was the first time a specific model had
appeared high on the list.
Reality star Kim
Kardashian was the most-searched person on the website, coming in at No.
3 and leading six famous women in the top 10.
Chan said Kardashian's "notoriety has kept her at the top," citing her
ongoing divorce saga with ex-husband Kris Humphries, her high-profile
relationship with rapper Kanye West and her E! channel reality shows.
Sports Illustrated cover model Kate Upton, British royal Kate
Middleton, late singer Whitney Houston, troubled former child star
Lindsay Lohan and pop star and former "American Idol" judge Jennifer
Lopez all featured in the top 10 after being in the news prominently
throughout the year.
Middleton, who was followed
eagerly by fans and critics in her first year as a royal married to
Britain's Prince William and being a staple at the London Olympics and
the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, also garnered the most-searched scandal of
the year when a French magazine published photos of her topless.
"olympics" came in at No. 7 on the list, as many turned to online media
to watch and keep tabs on the global sporting event held in London
during the summer.
On Yahoo!'s separate list of
top-searched obsessions, pop culture dominated this year, with "The
Hunger Games," reality star Honey Boo Boo, erotic novel "Fifty Shades of
Grey," British boy band One Direction, Carly Rae Jepsen's hit song
"Call Me Maybe" and Korean rapper Psy's "Gangnam Style" featuring in the
top 10.
Yahoo! Inc compiles its annual search
lists based on aggregated visitor activity on the network and billions
of consumer searches. —Reuters
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