He may have just made history as the first black president in America but unfortunately for Barack Obama, he's just not as exciting as Britney Spears. Like his opponent he had a few music videos on Youtube, but it takes an extra special charisma to win the Yahoo! title of 'Most Searched 2008'. Sadly for Obama, he's just too careful when he gets out of taxis and his hair doesn't change dramatically enough to really win the hearts and minds of Yahoo! searchers. Of course he was up against a tough opponent. Britney Spears has spent seven years in the top ten, and now four at number one. While Britney was at the top for both countries, searches for the US and the UK differed slightly. The US searches focused mainly on celebrities, while in the UK we were more focussed on reality TV, with Big Brother and X Factor both making the top three.
US Top Searches
- 1. Britney Spears
- 2. WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)
- 3. Barack Obama
- 4. Miley Cyrus
- 5. RuneScape
- 6. Jessica Alba
- 7. Naruto
- 8. Lindsay Lohan
- 9. Angelina Jolie
- 10. American Idol
UK top searches
- 1. Britney Spears
- 2. Big Brother
- 3. X Factor
- 4. Oasis
- 5. High School Musical 3
- 6. US Election
- 7. Amy Winehouse
- 8. Heath Ledger
- 9. Kate Moss
- 10. Eastenders
Obama wasn't the only politician to lose out to a celebrity. Yahoo!'s list of influential women featured political campaigner Sarah Palin who unfortunately took second place to Angelina Jolie. Although Palin may be upset about losing out to Jolie, she'll no doubt be secretly pleased to see she beat John McCain in overall political searches.
Political searches may have been of huge importance for Yahoo! users, but for Ask users many searchers may not have actually made it to the voting booths. 'How do I get pregnant?' was the most searched question for 2008, with 'how do I register to vote?' trailing in at number eight.
Yahoo! concluded its 2008 list with a list of sweet farewells that have made search history for 2008 - a top ten that's noticeably missing US computer science expert Randy Pausch, who died in July this year and was chosen by Time as one of the world's top one hundred influential people.
- 1. Health 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
Every year the search engines reveal what we really care about. While the US elections may have a dramatic effect on how the British economy fairs out, it seems that we're all a little more concerned about when High School Musical 3 will be showing. Even amongst the election fever-pitch of the United States this year, wrestling was seen to be that little bit more worthy of a search query. Let's see what 2009 will bring, and if there's anything strong enough to knock Britney from the number one spot.
