Nonetheless, the results are somewhat interesting. The first category marks overall searches across all subject areas. And the winners are:

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

Britney, it’s worth noting, held the same #1 spot in ‘07. In fact, Yahoo says she’s been the most popular search term for seven out of the past eight years (albeit for drastically different reasons now than at the beginning).

Here are some of the other measurements for specific categories, as measured by Yahoo:

Top 10 Economic Searches

1. IRS Stimulus Checks
2. Oil Prices
3. Gold Prices
4. Gas Prices
5. Dow Jones
6. Sallie Mae
7. Stock Market
8. AIG
9. Foreclosures
10. Debt Consolidation

Top 10 Politician 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

Top 10 News Stories

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

Top 10 Olympian Searches

1. Michael Phelps
2. Leryn Franco
3. Serena Williams
4. Kobe Bryant
5. Shawn Johnson
6. Jennie Finch
7. Misty May Treanor
8. Ronaldinho
9. Alicia Sacramone
10. Nastia Liukin

Top 10 Rising Celebrity Searches

1. Miley Cyrus
2. Vanessa Anne Hudgens
3. Chris Brown
4. Jonas Brothers
5. Rihanna
6. Taylor Swift
7. Jamie Lynn Spears
8. Hayden Panettiere
9. Zac Efron
10. Selena Gomez

Top 10 Searched Influential Women

1. Angelina Jolie
2. Sarah Palin
3. Oprah
4. Hillary Clinton
5. Gina Carano
6. Tina Fey
7. Michelle Obama
8. Katie Couric
9. Barbara Walters
10. Dara Torres

Top 10 Send-Offs

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

Ask.com has also released a list of its top search terms for the year. Our favorite category there is the “Top Question Searches,” which features such gems as:

“Why is the sky blue?”

“What is the meaning of life?”

And, the best of all — coming in at #1 on the list:

“How do I get pregnant?”

As they say, if you have to ask…

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