Google has announced the biggest trends in UK search for the year, with celebrities, and swine flu joined by Facebook, Ebay and Spotify in the British search zeitgeist.
Bing has just released its US-centric search trends, but Google has published UK searches to give us a more British look at exactly what has caught our interest.
"Britons had mixed feelings as they headed online this year to search for their favourite online tools, to learn about celebrities new and old, and to find a good bargain," said Google spokesperson Anthony House.
"People searched about new sensations like Lady Gaga and Susan Boyle, but they also turned to the web to learn about the deaths of Stephen Gately, Jade Goody and Michael Jackson."
Top searches and fastest rising
The top searches for 2009 are dominated by websites – with many people using the search engine as a quick way to get to the sites that they love.
Thus, the top searches for 2009 included Facebook, BBC, YouTube, Hotmail, Ebay, Google itself (which is just strange), Yahoo and Bebo – along with 'games' and 'news'.
Swine flu, Britain's Got talent winner Susan Boyle, Stephen Gately and Google Maps all made it into the most searched for news items, along with the likes of the tragic deaths of Stephen Gately and Michael Jackson.
Interestingly, in among the fastest rising searches was Microsoft's new search engine Bing – which stole ninth spot – although 'Facebook Login' was the top of that particular list, followed by Jogos, Ebay UK and Yahoo Mail.
You can check out the lists in more detail at anytime through google.com/insights/search but we'll repeat them below anyway.
Top searches 2009
Facebook
BBC
YouTube
Hotmail
games
Ebay
news
Google
Yahoo
Bebo
What was hot this year (fastest rising search queries in 2009)
Facebook login
Jogos
Ebay UK
Yahoo mail
Hotmail
BBC iPlayer
Hi5
Stephen Gately
Bing
Spotify
The biggest stories (fastest rising news searches in 2009)
swine flu
Susan Boyle
Jade Goody
Robert Pattison
Rihanna
Michael Jackson
Google Maps
Twitter
Stephen Gately
Iran
How is Britain feeling? (top searches for "i feel..." in 2009)
I feel love
I feel alone
I feel fine
I feel good
I feel sick
I feel fat
I feel ill
I feel pretty
I feel ugly
I feel free
The hottest tickets (fastest rising ticket searches in 2009)
Lady Gaga
Michael Jackson
Taylor Swift
Whitney Houston
pixies
JLS
Beyonce
Green Day
Tinchy Stryder
U2
