At the end of the year, it’s tradition for each search engine to release a report detailing the top search terms for the previous year. For Yahoo, this report is called “A Year in Review.” This year, however, Yahoo is accompanying their Year in Review with a blog entry. That entry looks back over the last ten years of search, starting with the top results for 2001 — a time when Yahoo was still the top player in the search engine world.
The report certainly gives some interesting insights into what has changed and what has remained the same. There are several items that have appeared again and again on the top 10 searches, including the WWE (including its previously title, the WWF — one variation of which made it to the list every year in the last decade), American Idol (which garnered five top slots since 2001), Britney Spears (who had a top position for every year of the decade), Paris Hilton (who saw a prominent search position from 2003 to 2007), Eminem (in the top 10 in 2002, ’03, and ’05), and Harry Potter (’01, ’03, and ’04).
One item that’s surprisingly rare on the top searches list at Yahoo is news stories. There have been only two news stories in the past ten years that saw enough attention to garner a position in the top ten list. In 2001, the World Trade Center tragedy was the sixth most searched item on the list, and it wasn’t until last year’s BP oil spill (which reached the number one slot) that a similar item made its way into the Year in Review. Additionally, in the last decade, only one politician has made it to the list: Barack Obama, in 2008.
You can view the entire report on the official Yahoo blog.
