Yahoo reveals most clicked items of 2008

Barack Obama’s presidential victory earned more clicks than any other story on Yahoo this year, the firm announced this week.

The search engine giant reported that while president-elect Obama’s win got more clicks, ‘Britney Spears’ was the most searched term and has been the most popular topic for the past seven years.

In terms of search popularity in 2008, Britney Spears was followed by World Wrestling Federation and then by Mr Obama.

Other popular search terms that made up the top ten included Miley Cyrus, online game RuneScape, Jessica Alba, Japanese cartoon series Naruto, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, and American Idol.

The most searched news stories on Yahoo’s search engine were on hurricanes, Caylee and Casey Anthony, election 2008, Pakistan, pregnant man, China, Iraq, Shelley Malil, Patrick Swayze and Afghanistan.

Heather Cabot, Yahoo’s Web Life editor, said: “This year people were captivated by the historic US presidential election and Olympic triumphs.

“They also closely followed every facet of the economic downturn and enjoyed a little escapism by devouring celebrity gossip and delving into online video games.”