Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, Twilight, the red hot Vampire saga, and WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), the professional wrestling organization, were at the top of Yahoo!'s top 10 overall searched list for 2009.
Jackson's top search ranking came after the singer's untimely death in June.
Yahoo said Michael Jackson's death broke many records on Yahoo! including the single most streamed event in Yahoo!'s history, with five million total streams.
Jackson also topped the list of the "Top 10 Celebrity Farewell Searches For 2009" on Yahoo followed by Farrah Fawcett and Patrick Swayze and the "Top 10 Searched Music Artists For 2009" on Yahoo followed by Britney Spears and Beyonce.
Spears -- who has topped Yahoo!'s Top 10 Overall Searches for the past four years --dropped from the No. 1 position to No. 5 this year.
"We saw consumers escape to the Web hoping to pursue news and their guilty pleasures: vampires, political implosions, how to moonwalk -- you name it, people went online to find it," said Vera Chan, a Yahoo! Search trend analyst in a prepared statement. "And with economic uncertainty looming, people looked for ways to find stability by searching the Web for new jobs, unemployment benefits, and ways to save through old-fashioned coupon hunting."
Yahoo! said the popularity of the "Twilight" franchise surged with with every "Twilight" book, DVD, and soundtrack release. Yahoo! attributed a good deal of the Twilight searches to the insatiable appetite of Twilight fans, known as "Twilighters," for every bit of cast gossip.
The biggest surprise in the list of 2009 top searches may be WWE, the official website for professional wrestling. The WWE website includes news of the latest matches and WWE superstar profiles and videos.
Below is the official top ten Yahoo! list for overall searches:
1. Michael Jackson 2. Twilight 3. WWE 4. Megan Fox 5. Britney Spears 6. Naruto 7. American Idol 8. Kim Kardashian 9. NASCAR 10. Runescape
