It’s that time of year again. Yahoo has released its 2009 Year in Review, highlighting the top searches and trends on its properties. Taking into account billions of searches, Yahoo’s review offers keen insights into what people are interested in and how they use the web to find news and information.
From 1,000 feet, Yahoo’s review demonstrates how the web played a key role in the news cycle. People flocked to the Internet to find news about a variety of topics, from the economy to health care and from Michael Jackson to Jon & Kate Plus 8.
Yahoo also reports signs of thrift during the second year of the recession. Yahoo searches highlight old-fashioned thrift as a necessity as people labored to save money. Searchers also sought to distract themselves from the economic crises at hand by following entertainment dramas that made headlines in 2009.
“We saw consumers escape to the web hoping to pursue news and their guilty pleasures: Vampires, political implosions, how to moonwalk — you name it, people went online to find it,” said Vera Chan, a Yahoo search trend analyst. “And with economic uncertainty looming, people looked for ways to find stability by searching the web for new jobs, unemployment benefits, and ways to save through old-fashioned coupon hunting.”
Searching for Pop Culture
Overall, Michael Jackson topped all searches in 2009. The king of pop overcame Britney Spears, who dominated Yahoo’s Top 10 overall searches for the past four years. Spears fell to fifth place as other pop-culture phenoms rose to fame, including the book and film series Twilight, World Wrestling Entertainment, and Megan Fox.
Not surprisingly, Jackson’s death broke many records on Yahoo. His memorial was the single most streamed event in Yahoo’s history, with five million total streams. Beyond Jackson, celebrity deaths for Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, and Ted…