Michael Jackson’s untimely death has thrust the King of Pop to the top of search engine yahoo.com’s internet searches in 2009, ending Britney Spears’ four-year reign as the most-searched star.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama dropped out of the top 10 list.
Up until June this year, when Jackson died of a drug overdose, Mr Obama’s inauguration attracted the most web traffic, according to Vera Chan, a web trend analyst at Yahoo Inc.
“When the news of Michael Jackson’s death came out the traffic was overwhelming, and surpassed that,” she said.
According to Ms Chan, Jackson’s death, which made headlines all around the world, had all the elements of intrigue and tragedy. It was sudden, shocking and eerily familiar to fans worldwide.
“And then his case was ruled a homicide so it’s an ongoing crime investigation. His death is unresolved,” she added.
Breaking news stories increasingly drove searches this year. While Mr Obama dropped from third place on the search list in 2008 to 44th in 2009, the political focus shifted from the US election campaign to specific policies. The phrase “stimulus plan” placed fourth and “health care reform” was sixth among Obama-related searches.
When it came to finance-related searches, the words “coupons” and “unemployment” topped the most-searched list, which included “cash for clunkers”, “student loans”, “foreclosures”, and “government jobs”.
The economy “was definitely a distinction from the previous years, how much people are monitoring the financial situation,” Ms Chan said.
The overall top 10 is “often just a snapshot of our distractions, our guilty pleasures, and breaking news,” she added.
Spears, the singer whose personal meltdown has captured headlines for the past few years, dropped to fifth place in the overall list, just behind Megan Fox and just ahead of the Japanese magna cartoon Naruto.
“Britney was number one for four years in a row, and not all of those years were pleasant years for her,” Ms Chan said.
“For her well being, and for our well being, I think we’re happy that we don’t have to check up on her.”
Vampire saga Twilight came in second on the list, followed by WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), Fox and Spears. Naruto captured sixth place, with the reality show American Idol, Kardashian, NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) and the online role-playing fantasy game Runescape rounding out the top 10 list.
Yahoo accounted for 18 per cent of US online searches in October, compared to a 65.4 per cent market share for Google Inc, according to the analytics firm comScore. Yahoo’s search data is from the company’s dot-com sites only.
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