As 2008 comes to a close, the annual tradition of gathering up the most popular search trends continues. Breaking down billions of search queries into concise Top 10 lists isn’t an easy task but among the major search engines. Still, obvious trends emerge nearly every year, and typically revolve around international news stories, major events, celebrity news, gossip and natural disasters. (Quite often, those last few can be grouped together).

Natural curiosity about political leaders, well known entertainers and amazing athletes typically fuel the daily buzz on every search engine, but major events like the 2008 Olympics and US Election always add extra fuel to the search frenzy.  This year’s lists collect the best of the best, and the best of the worst.

What’s Hot, Where & Why

• Google 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist; Fastest Rising Searches
• Yahoo’s 2008 Year End Round-Up of Buzzworthy Searches
• Ask.com: Top Search Trends of 2008
• AOL 2008 Year in Review: The Hottest Search Trends
• Online Holiday Shopping Stats & Most Searched Gifts (includes top shopping searches on Google)

Microsoft Live Search has not yet released the data for most popular searches in 2008, but it will be posted here when it become available.

Related Topics: Search Engines | Stats | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

About The Author: Elisabeth Osmeloski is the Executive Features Editor for Search Engine Land, responsible for managing all editorial content from guest contributors and regular articles from expert columnists. She also covers news relevant to the travel search industry and topics related to entertainment search. Follow her on Twitter @elisabethos. See more articles by Elisabeth Osmeloski