Celebs dominate top UK searches of 2006

The Yahoo Top Searches of 2006 report showed that this year Heather Mills topped the list followed by Pete Burns, The Ordinary Boys, Steve Irwin and Kate Moss.

Andy Williams, senior editor, Yahoo! Search, said: “It's amazing to see the nation's growing interest in celebrities. Last year, the top searches were around topical, hard news stories whereas this year it is all about celebrities. 2006 will certainly go down as the 'Year of the Celeb'.”

In the US, Singer Britney Spears was the most searched for term of 2006 using Yahoo's search engine. The star has topped the search hitlist five times out of the last six years.

Female celebrities dominated the top 10 overall search list, with Shakira at number three, Jessica Simpson at number four and Paris Hilton at number five.

Wrestling TV network WWE was the second most searched for item of 2006.

The top news story search of 2006 was the death of Australian crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, followed by the death of the son of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith.  The Iraq war was the third most searched for story.

For the first time, Yahoo! searches for blogs and blog entries were included. Top blog entires were celebrity gossip blogs Perez Hilton, followed by The Superficial. Political blog The Huffington Post was the fourth most-searched for blog of 2006.