After fours years on top of Yahoo’s most popular Internet searches, Britney Spears has been replaced by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. No surprise here, as the late singer was a popular figure when he was alive, and his death only increased his profile.

When Michael died, everyone wanted to read his biography, see his pictures and video clips, read song lyrics or simply read news and updates on his cause of death. It was certainly shocking, and shocking news is big news, especially when a celebrity dies. I think Britney has her negative headlines to thank for being the number one for 4 years. I don’t believe she has more fans than Michael.

According to Yahoo, Barack Obama is out of the top 10 in 2009, now that the US election and inauguration are behind us. Other popular searches in 2009 have been Nascar, Megan Fox, Kim Kardashian and the film Twilight. Breaking news also dominated Internet searches this year.

Finance related searches have also been popular: the words Coupons, Unemployed, Cash for Clunkers, Student Loans, Foreclosures and Government Jobs came up frequently in Yahoo searches.

The top 10 yahoo search terms in 2009:

• Michael Jackson
• Twilight
• WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)
• Megan Fox
• Britney Spears
• Naruto (Japanese magna cartoon)
• American Idol
• Kim Kardashian
• NASCAR (Stock car racing)
• Runescape (Role playing fantasy game)

Source: news.com.au