Most popular searches for 2008

Yahoo! and Google have released the most searched for websites over the past year, and some of them might surprise you.

From presidential candidates to Olympians making history, we witnessed quite a lot this past year, and a lot of us went through the portals of Yahoo! and Google.

Now they’re looking back to see what’s making history on their sites.

Yahoo! and Google filtered through billions of searches from around the globe to learn the biggest trends most interesting celebrities and top stories of 2008.

And who did most of us want to know about? The top overall search for Yahoo! was Britney Spears, followed by World Wrestling Entertainment, Barack Obama, Miley Cyrus, and the online adventure game Runescape.

This year’s top searched news stories on Yahoo! were hurricane coverage, followed by missing toddler Caylee Anthony, and the election.

Google’s results were quite different; they evaluated the fastest risers. No surprise for the top of the list, Obama, followed by Facebook, AT&T, iPhone, which topped the list in 2007, and finally Youtube.

More than anything, North Carolinians google lyrics, Myspace, and games.

According to wwaytv3.com, the most popular Wilmington news stories of 2008 were woman’s body found in a freezer, a man tased at his father’s funeral, and Sheriff Ron Hewett indicted with embezzlement.

Google plans to announce their year-end zeitgeist, or the spirit of times, the middle of next week. That will give a more in-depth review of 2008’s breaking news stories, most popular movies and shows, and must-have gadgets. WWAY will bring you those numbers when they’re released.