Top ten Yahoo searches in 2007

Topics such as global warming, celebrities in trouble, social networking and Harry Potter topped the list of searches on Yahoo in 2007.

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, the United States, sifted billions of searches made so far in 2007 by its hundreds of millions of users worldwide to identify trends regarding what attracted people’s interest.

Every year, Yahoo releases a Top 10 list for Web searches. In 2006, pop star Britney Spears stood at No. 1, being the most popular search term.

The results of the review have been posted at Yahoo’s website under the headline ‘Top Trends in Search in 2007.’

The news agency AFP quoted Raj Gossain, Yahoo’s director of product marketing, as saying, “It is really a barometer for what is interesting and relevant for the world. We have a set of trends that identifies a culture that is really on the brink of change. There are a lot of inflection points that relate to the environment, politics, trade, and how they view celebrity.”

Information about Saddam Hussein, the fallen ruler of Iraq who was hanged, and the Middle East were the most sought-after news, followed by oil prices and the activities of United States President George W Bush.

According to Vera Chan, Yahoo’s senior news editor, “people were checking the status of the war and we’ve seen more and more searches on exit strategies. People are monitoring the situation in Iran, the nuclear program and worries of further military confrontations.”

Recall of products was one of the hot topics, with questions logged regarding pet food, toys, and peanut butter product recall.

Internet searches, Raj Gossain said, revealed a hunger for knowledge about global warming and ways to do something about it.

Among other top “green” searches for 2007 were recycling, hybrid cars, solar energy, and former US vice-president Al Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his battle against global warming.

In 2007, as usual, the internet had abundant searches for information on celebrities. However, in 2007, the focus was on celebrities whose lives were troubled or tragic.

In the celebrity section, queries about pop singer Britney Spears topped the list, followed by hotel heiress and actress Paris Hilton.

Paris Hilton was followed by Anna Nicole Smith, a former centerfold model of Playboy who was found dead in a hotel room in Florida in February 2007.

Internet searchers were hugely attracted to “final farewells” – the top one being for the Harry Potter, hero of author J K Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

The last of in the series of Harry Potter books was released in 2007.

People also resorted to the internet for information about the finale of the cable television series The Sopranos and the death of Marvel Comic cartoon hero Captain America.

In the department of technology searches, video-sharing website YouTube, online encyclopedia Wikipedia and online social-networking locale Facebook topped the list. These were followed by the Apple’s triad of iTunes, iPod, and iPhone.

Among video gaming consoles, Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and Sony’s Playstation 3 found a place in the top ten technology searches, along with the music-playing video game Guitar Hero.

As for the top ten Yahoo searches by children, global warming, animals, games, dinosaurs, and homework came at the top.

The search engine Google also released its list of the 10 fastest rising US search terms for 2007. They are: iphone, webkinz, tmz, the movie Transformers, youtube, club penguin, myspace, heroes, facebook, and Anna Nicole Smith.