Yahoo's Top Searches of 2008

What did the year 2008 look like for Yahoo searchers? Check out the list of top Yahoo searches to see what events, subjects, and people were on Yahoo users minds this year. First, the top overall searches for 2008.

Top Searches of 2008

1. Britney Spears
2. WWE
3. Barack Obama
4. Miley Cyrus
5. RuneScape
6. Jessica Alba
7. Naruto
8. Lindsay Lohan
9. Angelina Jolie
10. American Idol

As you can see from this list, many people searched for entertainment and election-related topics. Next, Yahoo compiled the top newsworthy searches:

Top News Searches

1. Hurricanes
2. Caylee and Casey Anthony
3. Election 2008
4. Pakistan
5. Pregnant Man
6. China
7. Iraq
8. Shelley Malil
9. Patrick Swayze
10. Afghanistan

These news searches reflect the various world conflicts and natural disasters that dominated Yahoo searches; controversial crime cases and celebrity health stories were also popular.

Top Political Searches

This was a big year for political topics in Yahoo search; a presidential election tends to do that. Here are the top politically related searches:

1. Barack Obama
2. Sarah Palin
3. John McCain
4. Hillary Clinton
5. George Bush
6. Ron Paul
7. John Edwards
8. Mike Huckabee
9. Arnold Schwarzenegger
10. Mitt Romney

Many Yahoo searches in 2008 focused on celebrity passings, starting with Heath Ledger's tragic death at the beginning of the year.

Searches for Celebrity Deaths

1. Heath Ledger
2. Bernie Mac
3. Paul Newman
4. Randy Pausch
5. George Carlin
6. Estelle Getty
7. Tim Russert
8. Brad Renfro
9. Isaac Hayes
10. Boyd Coddington

The Top Yahoo Searches of 2008

It's interesting to look at the year-end compilations of literally millions of search data to see what kind of trends ruled the search engines, and Yahoo's top searches definitely are a good way to get a concise snapshot of what we were interested in this year. Take a look at past Yahoo end of the year searches:

• Top Searches of 2007
• Top Yahoo Searches of 2006
• Yahoo Top Searches of 2005