Yahoo's Top 10 Searches for 2010

#1 - The BP Oil Spill: It was the news of the year and never seemed to end, so with excessive news links and coverage BP's fiasco is a given #1. It also has a lot to do with American's fascination with disaster, a public that thrives on the brink of horror as long as it stays in the Gulf. Though, a substantial portion of this search traffic is due to the ever increasing global environmental concern. The BP Oil Spill brought together two of the most heated concerns around the world: Energy and the Environment.

#2 - 2010 World Cup: Soccer, or football as the rest of the world calls it, is the most popular sport in the world. The United States is slowly catching on to this, which surely added to the search traffic. Yahoo called this phenomenon "speed learning online", as millions of Americans tried to impress their friends that they actually knew something about the sport. Perhaps the bigger influx of search traffic came from an increased connectivity, as countries with huge nationalistic soccer fandoms gained more access to the web.

#3 - Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus: This girl is on a dangerous track of celebrity as the world watches her grow up. This girl can't fart without it getting publicity, so it's no surprise that she is the celebrity of 2010. With female celebrity role models like Brittany Spears and Jessica Simpson taking a twirl down the toilet, parents willing latched their kids onto Miley's fad train to nowhere.

#4 - Kim Kardashian: Whatever America. This celebutante is the epitome of our lust with unnecessary fame. Kardashian was born into money, got a few breaks on TV, but lets be honest it was her sex tape with Ray J that opened the flood gates. Kardashian feeds the lie that if you preach moral values, but not necessarily practice them, millions of TV viewers will sympathize with you. As far as search traffic, what's to read or see about this flicker of light in the wasteland of reality TV? My bet is on millions of eager searchers trying to find the sex tape.

#5 - Lady Gaga: She struts her sexiness with talent and truly knows how to put on a show on and off the stage. While it's just more obsessive celebrity fodder, search traffic for Lady Gaga was at least geared towards listening to music, watching videos and admiring radical fashion. When 15 million people buy your albums in less than 5 years that is sure to translate into search traffic. This dame of dazzle keeps going strong and doesn't show any signs of taking the downward spiral of Brittany Spears, more like climbing the mountain of Madonna.

#6 - iPhone: Was it searchers basking in the glory of their new iPhone or was it searchers wallowing in the pits of troubleshooting? Perhaps it was those lusting after the ubiquitous iPhone and its frenzy of applications, hunting for the elusive deal. Maybe it was all of the above. In a world of economic breakdown, Apple sure made a dent in sales for an overpriced piece of constantly outdated software.

#7 - Megan Fox: Seriously? Laptop sales must have gone up substantially with parents buying them for their 15 year old sons. That's the only reason search traffic could possibly go this high for this overrated, barely talented hottie. Do you need me to spell it out for you? Her search traffic comes from 15 year old boys who certainly wouldn't be pulling up pics of her on the family computer.

#8 - Justin Bieber: I'm not sure what's worse; Kim Kardashian, Megan Fox or Justin Bieber. Though, I guess Bieber at least deserves to be up there near Lady Gaga, unlike Fox and Kardashian. He works for it, sings his little heart out and has a Mom who must really know her marketing. Bieber is a direct product of the internet being the self-proclaimed first YouTube sensation to make it. We'll see what happens when his voice cracks.

#9 - American Idol: Isn't watching this predictable show enough for people; do we really need to search for banal information about wanna-be celebrities? This is just proof that the real American dream is just 15 minutes of fame. This show had its day by truly capturing our attention with some heart warming moments, but it's all said and done; move on America.

#10 - Brittany Spears: This washed up warrior of teen idols "dominated" the search engines for ten years according to Yahoo. It seems her big bang had some fizzle left to it as Spears wouldn't let us forget. Her lesson: if you can't release anything original as a music artist and your acting career was a short lived joke - make a fool of yourself. The public will recognize it and flood search engines looking for your embarrassing moments; then maybe you'll get a reality TV show or book deal out of it.