Watch out, Britney Spears: you've lost your luster, according to Yahoo. Yesterday, the company released its most popular search request list for 2010, and it would appear that it took a natural disaster and a soccer World Cup to shake Americans and the rest of the Internet-using world out of their celebrity-obsessed stupor. The singer, who topped the Yahoo search list for the years 2005 through 2008, has dropped down to a lowly No. 10 on the list. The No. 1 spot in 2010 was held by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. The No. 2 spot was nabbed by Soccer's World Cup, which was held in June of this year.
In 2009, Michael Jackson, who died in June of that year, topped the list. Last year, Spears' search engine star was already beginning to drop; she rated at No. 5 in 2009.
Yahoo, once the top of the heap of search engines, is nowadays dwarfed by its giant competitor, Google, which fields billions more search requests than Yahoo each year. In fact, Google is better used than Yahoo, Microsoft's Bing and AOL combined.
Not to be outdone, however, Bing and AOL released their top searches earlier this week, with reality TV star Kim Kardashian topping Bing's list and golfer Tiger Woods on top at AOL. Kardashian came in fourth on Yahoo's list and seventh in AOL's celebrity rankings; Woods was third on Bing and failed to place among Yahoo's Top 10.
Google will release its top search ranking later this year, so we'll have to wait to see who...or what...tops their list.
Lest you think Americans have finally become interested in something other than pop culture, rest easy: reality television stars and American Idol insta-celebrities rounded out most of the rest of Yahoo's Top 10. The rest of the list saw grand fascination with teen singer and actress Miley Cyrus at No. 3, singer Lady Gaga at No. 5, actress Megan Fox at No. 7, teen heartthrob Justin Bieber at No. 8, and the American Idol television show at No. 9.
The No. 6 spot was held by Apple's iPhone.
Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TechZone360. To read more of Tracey's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Tammy Wolf