2009 - the year of swine flu, SuBo and Jade

Google has revealed the top search terms for 2009, showing Brits' interest in dead celebrities and recession-busting bargains.

The most common searches were for Facebook, BBC, YouTube, Hotmail and games, unsurprisingly.

The search giant said that the fastest rising news searches were for swine flu, Susan Boyle, Jade Goody, Robert Pattinson and Rihanna.

But bargain-hunters were looking for flights, holidays, train tickets, car insurance and hotels.

"Britons had mixed feelings as they headed online this year to search for their favourite online tools, to learn about celebrities new and old, and to find a good bargain," said Google spokesperson Anthony House.

Google also revealed the hottest topic for each year going back to 2001, in which year Nostradamus was top of the list. Somewhat unbelievably, James Blunt was the hottest topic in 2005, with Stephen Gately the most popular in 2009.

Earlier this week, Ask Jeeves revealed the most-commonly asked questions on its search engine in 2009. Top of the list was 'what is Twitter?'.


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