Gately tops Google UK’s 2009 trend list

A dead pop star became the most searched-for topic in 2009, Google UK has announced in its annual 'zeitgeist' list. But while in the United States the death of Michael Jackson dominated this year's search engine rankings, according to stats from Microsoft Bing and Yahoo, in Britain it was the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately (above) who became the top search trend after the Irish band member died suddenly in October.
 
Michael Jackson - whose death was one of the biggest international news stories in 2009 - was only the tenth most popular search topic among Google's British users. Jackson, who died aged 50 in June, was beaten by Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, Lady Gaga and the deaths of both Jade Goody and Gately.
 
Google's UK list was also dominated by new media firms, including its rival, Microsoft's search service Bing, at number two behind Gately. Bing was followed by the free music service Spotify and the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Bing has not released a list of searched-for terms for Britain because it only launched a localised UK version in November. Google dominates the UK search market with around 90 per cent of the market. Google US is yet to announce its list of top search terms for 2009. ·