The folks in charge of Yahoo's search engine have released data on the hottest trends of the year. The term that Americans searched for most in 2012: "elections."
"In the dozen years Yahoo! has ranked its annual Top 10 searches, only two other news events captured the top spot: the BP oil spill in 2010, and Michael Jackson's death in 2009. This year the half-billion people who visit Yahoo! every month typed the word 'elections' more than any other," wrote Yahoo in a blog post on Sunday.
The company also revealed the terms that mobile users were most curious about. Searches for "elections" and many other leading news stories did not make this list, which was dominated mostly by for-fun searches: "scrabble word finder" was No. 2, "fantasy football" was No. 3, "american idol" was No. 6. This year, the most popular query made by phone and tablet users was "iPhone 5."
But what other gadgets captured the attention of Yahoo users this year? Take a look at the slideshow (below) to see some of the buzz-worthiest devices that made web searchers most curious in the past 12 months -- from Apple and Android phones and tablets to wispy ereaders. Then, take a look at the top 10 Yahoo searches from 2011, as well the recently announced top searches and news stories from Bing and the most-asked questions of 2012 from Ask.com.
