Top 10 Google, Yahoo, Bing Searches of 2009

Dec. 1, 2009 — -- This has been a complicated year -- with the economy still sputtering, a new president and troops in dangerous places.

But what did people search for on the Web? Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson and Michael Jackson.

The singer burst into the headlines when he died in June and was 2009's top search term on Google, Yahoo and Bing, the three leading search engines.

The year is not over yet, but they and several smaller competitors have now released their lists of the top searches of the year, and they reflect the times. People looked up dead celebrities, comfort food, and -- more than ever -- each other.

Google reports that social-networking sites -- Twitter, Facebook, Tuenti (Facebook's Spanish equivalent) and others -- were all near the top of the list.

Here's Google's list of "fastest-rising" searches globally:

Google puts out this list (and several variations) annually -- partly, it admits, in a spirit of self-promotion, but also to offer us an interesting picture of what was on our collective minds.

"It gives us a really good sense of what is the world thinking about because what they're thinking about is what they search for," said Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products.