Yahoo! Search Blog

The “iPhone” was the top searched term in 2011 — will this year’s Macworld reveal yet another spell-binding tech game changer that propels Apple to the top of searches in 2012?

As you consider stories focused on the news that comes out of this year’s Macworld, we wanted to share a few tidbits about what people are searching for online related to this year’s show.  So, what is captivating the attention of Apple addicts and pushing them toward Yahoo! for more information?

Macworld/iWorld 2012: Let’s face it, with people gearing up for the latest Mac news, Yahoo! searches for all things “i” continue to dominate, with 64% of searches this month for “Macworld” coming from men. And, beyond Macworld, people are turning to Yahoo! for info on everything from Apple products to details on legendary founder Steve Jobs.

According to Yahoo!, the top states searching for “Macworld” this month include:

1.     California

2.     Florida

3.     Texas

4.     Illinois

5.     Massachusetts

According to Yahoo!, the top countries searching for “iWorld” this month include:

1.     United States

2.     Hong Kong

3.     United Kingdom

4.     Canada

5.     Taiwan

All Things Apple: When it comes to Apple’s latest and greatest, fans are usually only kept satisfied for a few short hours before they begin scouring the Internet for information on the next version. Product searches for Apple this month on Yahoo! include:

·       App Love:

o   Angry Birds Season 2012 – Searches are spiking 330% this month on Yahoo!.

o   Searches on Yahoo! for “best iPad apps” are up 414% this month.

o   ”Free iPad games” searches this month on Yahoo! are up 2,426%.

o   Additional apps that are popular in search this month on Yahoo! include: “fitness apps,” “Instagram,” “free apps,” and “Parade.com apps.

·       iPhone:

o   Searches for “free iPhone” this month on Yahoo! are up 4,649%.

o   “iPhone 4S sale” searches on Yahoo! this month are up 844%.

·       iPad:

o   Yahoo! searches for ”cheap iPad 2″ are up 3,810% this month.

o   Searches for “iPad tutorial” are up 1,036% this month on Yahoo!.

o   Of the searches for “iPad 2” this month on Yahoo!, 15% are coming from people 24 and under.

·       Jailbreak: Yahoo! searches this month for “how to jailbreak iPod touch” are up 866% and searches for ”jailbreak iPhone 4″ are up 1,085%.

·       Other:

o   Yahoo! Searches for ”What is iCloud” this month are up 927% and searches for ”How to use iCloud” are up 276%.

o   ”FaceTime for Mac” searches this month on Yahoo! are up 547%.

o   Searches for ”iBook” this month on Yahoo! are up 505%.

According to Yahoo!, the top searched Apple products this month include:

1.     iPad 3 — Of the searches for “iPad 3″ this month on Yahoo!, 61% are coming from men.

2.     iPhone 5 — 62% of the searches for “iPhone 5″ are coming from people 34 and under.

3.     iPad 2 — Of the searches for “iPad 2″ this month on Yahoo!, 53% are coming from men.

4.     iCloud — Of the searches for “iCloud” this month on Yahoo!, 29% are coming from people ages 25-34.

5.     iPhone 4S — Top states searching for “iPhone 4S” this month on Yahoo!: California, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, and Florida.

Steve Jobs: It has been almost four months since the world lost tech visionary Steve Jobs, and all eyes are on Apple to see how the company will push forward without the creative genius that brought the company back from the brink of failure with the creation of the iPod. As a result, people are still turning to Yahoo! for information on the beloved innovator who changed so many lives. Searches on Yahoo! this month for “Steve Jobs Apple” are up 4,527%.  Additional Steve Jobs searches that are piquing people’s interest in search this week include: “Steve Jobs Grammy,” “Steve Jobs doctor,” “Steve Jobs last words,” “Bill Gates and Steve Jobs,” “Steve Jobs first inventions,” “the Steve Jobs betrayal,” “Steve Jobs book,” “How Steve Jobs revolutionized technology.”

Regardless of what is revealed and debated at this year’s Macworld event, one thing is for sure, Mac fans will be sure to keep on chattering long after the doors close at the show!

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Love Yahoo! Search Trends? Explore them for yourself on Yahoo! Clues.

Since the start of the Internet, Yahoo! has been dedicated to transforming online search, and continues to focus on what’s next. We believe the next three to five years in search are going to inspire a dramatically different experience designed for an even more inquisitive and information-thirsty users.

[Photo: Yahoo! Homepage circa 1995]

With more interactive ways to consume content in the form of images, videos, apps, music, social media feeds, maps and shopping, people are demanding more from their search results. Weeding through a page of blue links is no longer the answer. There is an amazing wealth of data and content available, and Yahoo! has access to much of that content because of its focus on properties like Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, omg!, Yahoo! Local, etc. Of all search engines, Yahoo! has the best content available, and we are just starting to utilize this content in both Yahoo! Search and in new and transformative products like Yahoo! Search Direct.

We also believe that search engines must act as a companion across all devices, not just a destination experience. Today a user might have to stop reading an article, open a new tab or window on their browser, go to a search engine and type in a query. This kind of behavior is truly disruptive to the user experience. We firmly believe that search engines will have to evolve to become companions and helpers, and also guide people to unearth information and content they may not even know they are searching for.

Not only is the content experience changing, but the devices on which people search is changing. We envision mobile search will surpass PC search by 2016. The typical everyday query is no longer tied to the online search box. People expect better answers, whenever and wherever they want, from their PC, mobile phone or tablet.

[Photo: Example of the current Yahoo! Homepage on the iPad]

Finally, this new landscape of search makes it hard to measure what is a search. We need to rethink traditional measurement methodologies. Monitoring the growth of search in these newer, more interactive experiences requires new metrics, tracking and counting systems to be able to compare new “modern” search experiences in a way that accurately reflects how people search today.

The next chapter of search is about ubiquity and promoting the most immediate and relevant discovery of information – and that’s just what we’re working on here at Yahoo! Search. Check back here on the Search blog as we have some exciting new products to unveil in 2012!

–Shashi Seth, Senior Vice President, Search & Marketplaces, Yahoo!

Top searched diets on Yahoo! in the past 7 days:

1.       Atkins diet

2.       HCG diet

3.       Paleo diet

4.       Low Carb diet

5.       Pink Method diet

6.       17 day diet

7.       Dukan diet

8.       Cabbage Soup diet

9.       Vegan diet

10.   Dr. Oz diet

 

Interesting diet trends on Yahoo!:

·         Searches on Yahoo! for “weight loss plans” are up 12749% this week

o   73% of searches come from females this week

·         17 day diet plan searches are up 915% on Yahoo! this week

·         Lemonade diet searches are up 856% on Yahoo! this week

·         Vegetarian diet searches are up 825% on Yahoo! this week

·         The top regions searching for “weight loss plans” this week are:

o   Charlottesville (VA)

o   Macon (GA)

o   Topeka (KS)

o   Florence-Myrtle Beach (SC)

o   Binghamton (NY)

o   Birmingham (AL)

o   Providence-New Bedford (RI)

o   La Crosse-Eau Claire (WI)

o   Baltimore (MD)

o   Santabarbra-Sanmar-Sanluob (CA)

 

New Year’s Resolutions trends on Yahoo!:

·         Searches for “funny new year’s resolutions” are up 3188% this week on Yahoo!

·         “New Year’s resolution humor” searches are spiking 1626% this week on Yahoo!

·         “stop smoking herbs” are spiking 53% this week on Yahoo!

 

How To trends on Yahoo! :

·         Searches for the following “how to” questions are spiking this week on Yahoo!:

o   “How to save money” up 491%

o   “how to lose 10 pounds” up 339%

o   “how to start a blog” up 288%

o   “how to lower blood pressure” up 114%

o   “how to lower cholesterol” up 109%

 

Love Yahoo! Search Trends? Explore them for yourself on Yahoo! Clues.

As the premier digital media company, Yahoo! publishes tons of content every day. In addition to publishing it, we do a lot of work behind the scenes to analyze and understand that content in a scalable and algorithmic way. Today we’re pleased to open up our content analysis technology to the world to help developers build their own fantastic experiences for their sites and users.

The newly launched Yahoo! Content Analysis service replaces Yahoo!’s popular Term Extraction service and now provides advanced content analysis on either text or a URL, leverages Yahoo!’s state of the art machine-learned ranking (MLR) technology to extract key terms from the content, and, more importantly, to rank them based on their overall importance to the content. The output you receive contains the keywords and their ranks along with other actionable metadata.

On top of entity extraction and ranking, developers need to know whether key terms correspond to objects with existing rich metadata. Having this entity/object connection allows for the creation of highly engaging user experiences. The Y! Content Analysis output provides related Wikipedia IDs for key terms when they can be confidently identified. This enables interoperability with linked data on the semantic Web.

Finally, sometimes you’re interested in the whole document in addition to its key terms. We provide classification for your content as well. We’ll map your content or URL to our deep and descriptive taxonomy.

Y! Content Analysis supports US English and Chinese languages for entity detection and ranking. Classification supports only English and more languages will be added gradually.

Our new service replaces the current Term Extraction Service, which is expected to end on March 31, 2012. We will continue to support the Term Extraction requests, but calls must be directed to our YQL table since we’ll be shutting down the non-YQL service. More details can be found on today’s YDN blog post.

The new features and MLR are supported only in the new request format. Give it a try today!

– Peter Levinson, Product Manager, Yahoo! Content Analysis

From gift ideas and holidays songs to Christmas trees and Menorah’s, the holiday season is in full swing and people across the country are turning to Yahoo! to make their winter wonderland even more spectacular.

Hot Holiday Searches on Yahoo!:

• Big Screen vs. Small Screen: Whether it’s the hottest new Christmas movie or catching the stop motion animation of Rudolph on television, the big screen and small screen bring a sense of nostalgia to many Americans during the holiday season. Yahoo! searches this month for “Charlie Brown Christmas“ are up 1,929% and searches for “How the Grinch Stole Christmas“ are up 1,787%.
• Decorations: Prepping for the Christmas holiday oftentimes begins around Thanksgiving and continues untilChristmas, and this year, everything from lights and tress to wreaths and ornaments are capturing interest online. Searches this month on Yahoo! for “fiber optic Christmas trees“ are up 2,764% and searches for “pre-lit Christmas trees” are up 1,929%.
• Ugly Sweaters: The ugly Christmas sweater parties that have swept the nation over the last few years are likely the reason that we’re seeing interest in the topic. This month on Yahoo!, searches for “Christmas sweaters“ are up 5,689%. And, searches on Yahoo! for “ugly Christmas sweaters” are up 69% compared to 2010.
• Leaping for LeapPads: As noted in an article by Piper Weiss, Yahoo! Shine, in 1984 people trampled over each other for the last Cabbage Patch Kid, but this year, the battle lines are drawn over the LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer Learning Tablet, with 14% of Americans planning on gifting the touch screen toy this year. Searches on Yahoo! this month for the “LeapFrog LeadPad Explorer” are up 11,531% and searches for the “LeapFrog Explorer” are up 3,308%. Top states searching Yahoo! this month for this season’s hottest toy: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, New York, and Maryland.

o   Did you Know?:

• Many holiday gifts require batteries, a cost that can add up over the course of the year when products require a fresh set, but many people are wising up by purchasing rechargeable batteries. Searches on Yahoo! for “rechargeable batteries” are up 310% compared to 2010.
• “Artificial Christmas Tree” searches on Yahoo! are up 622% compared to 2010.
• “Christmas Cactus” searches are up 3,754% this month on Yahoo!.
• Yahoo! searches for “Christmas decorations 2011” this month are up 2,489%.
• “Outdoor Christmas lights” searches on Yahoo! this month are up 2,472%.

According to Yahoo!, the Christmas searches this month (past 30 days) include:

1.     Christmas cards

2.     Santa Claus

3.     Christmas trees

4.     Christmas pictures

5.     Christmas music

6.     Christmas gift ideas

7.     Christmas song lyrics

8.     Christmas ornaments

9.     Christmas lights

10.  Christmas poems

According to Yahoo!, the top Hanukkah searches this month (past 30 days) include:

1.     Hanukkah candles

2.     Hanukkah gifts

3.     Hanukkah cards

4.     Menorah

5.     When is Hanukkah?

6.     Dreidel

7.     Hanukkah decorations

8.     What is Hanukkah?

9.     Hanukkah crafts

10.  Hanukkah recipes

From 24/7 holiday radio stations to the officemate who plays holiday music from Dec. 1 until Jan. 1, whether you like the holidays or not, it’s hard to escape the music.

According to Yahoo!, the top searched holiday songs this month (past 30 days) include:

1.     “The 12 Days of Christmas”

2.     “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”

3.     “All I Want for Christmas Is You”

4.     “Frosty the Snowman”

5.     “Jingle Bells”

6.     “Oh Holy Night”

7.     “Feliz Navidad”

8.     “Jingle Bell Rock”

9.     “Silent Night”

10.  “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”

What are you looking forward to most this holiday season? For many Americans, homemade cookies, gingerbread houses, and secret family recipes bring a feeling of nostalgia, and Yahoo! searches reveal what people are looking forward to this holiday season!

Hot Holiday Food Searches on Yahoo!:

• Christmas Cookies: During the holiday season, it’s difficult to escape sweet treats, especially cookies, and thisyear will likely be no different. Searches on Yahoo! for “Christmas cookie recipes” are up 207% and searches for “easy Christmas cookie recipes” are up 193%. Top states searching for “Christmas cookie recipes” this week on Yahoo! include: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. See below for additional cookie searches this week on Yahoo!.
• Gingerbread: Whether it’s cookies or making houses, gingerbread is a holiday staple. Searches this week on Yahoo! for “gingerbread cookie recipe” are up 257%. Of the searches for “gingerbread cookie recipe” this week, 13% are coming from those 13 and under. Also spiking this week on Yahoo!: “gingerbread men” (up 70% this week), “gingerbread free patterns” (up 88% this week), and “gingerbread houses” (up 52% this week).
• Fudge: For many Americans, the holidays are when they root through old cookbooks for familyfavorite fudge recipes, but this year, many people are opting to turn to Yahoo! to put a twist on their family favorites. Searches on Yahoo! for “chocolate fudge recipe” this week are up 180% and searches for “easy fudge recipes” are up 132%. Searches for “peanut butter fudge” are also spiking this week. Of the searches for “chocolate fudge recipe” this week on Yahoo!, 64% are coming from women.

And whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Festivus or hold out for the New Year’s Eve parties, food is a holiday staple.

According to Yahoo!, the top searched recipes this month (past 30 days) include:  

1.     Christmas cookie recipes

2.     Sugar cookie recipes

3.     Fudge recipes

4.     Appetizer recipes

5.     Christmas candy recipes

6.     Gingerbread recipes

7.     Egg nog recipes

8.     Snickerdoodle recipes

9.     Peppermint bark recipes

10.  Fruitcake recipes

 

According to Yahoo!, the top searched cookies this month (past 30 days) include:

1.     Christmas cookies

2.     Sugar cookies

3.     Gingerbread cookies

4.     Peanut butter cookies

5.     Snickerdoodles

6.     Chocolate chip cookies

7.     No bake cookies

8.     Oatmeal cookies

9.     Biscotti

10.  Shortbread cookie

Love Yahoo! Search Trends? Explore them for yourself on Yahoo! Clues.

Boss.yahoo.com launches with new offerings for site owners, developers and publishers; Yahoo! unveils new updates for the BOSS API

When launched, Yahoo! Search BOSS, offered developers a search API with the power, simplicity, and flexibility demanded by the marketplace. Yahoo!’s BOSS API currently enables thousands of customers with “Search as a Service,” used in a wide variety of online applications. The BOSS API was just the beginning.

Today, we are announcing a new home for Yahoo! Search BOSS, boss.yahoo.com, and three new BOSS offerings: BOSS Hosted Search, BOSS Site Search and BOSS Shortcuts. The new offerings address user engagement, traffic recirculation, monetization, and high development and maintenance costs.

Whether you’re a site owner looking for a robust customizable search solution, a developer that needs the utmost flexibility for search as a service, or a publisher that needs quality solutions that deliver higher user engagement, boss.yahoo.com has it all.

BOSS Hosted Search, available globally today, offers a free-of-charge web search experience, highly customizable right out of the box. In minutes, you can configure a web search experience much like the Yahoo! Search page with structured content, search refiners, image modules and other rich assets. Simply pick the bells and whistles that meet the look and feel you desire, insert the generated code snippet into your page and you are done. It is Search built your way and offers opportunity to apply for revenue sharing through search advertising.

BOSS Site Search. The concept of Site Search has been around for many years, but the products available in the marketplace leave a lot to be desired. Publishers deserve a solution that is more focused on the content of their site, that delivers results that are highly relevant and fresh, that offers rich customizations, and that can be deployed with ease.

Available globally today through our Private Alpha program, BOSS Site Search provides a hosted site search solution that delivers results that are highly relevant and fresh. This enables you to keep your users more engaged with your content and stay longer on your site.

BOSS Shortcuts.  Search is more than just the perfect display of meaningful results based on user keywords. It’s also about recommending related content based on the context of what a user is reading on a publisher site. Existing solutions are often over-commercialized, deliver poor results and drive users away.

Available today through our Private Alpha program for the US, Canada, India, and UK markets, BOSS Shortcuts delivers technology that understands the content to help analyze your article pages and find terms that engage with your audience. When users click on these terms a contextual window is presented filled with highly relevant results from your site, the web, and our ad marketplace.

New Yahoo! Search BOSS API Updates

In addition to the new BOSS products, we are pleased to unveil new updates for the Yahoo! Search BOSS API:

·      Making Ads Simpler and Easier – Today, we are making the process of signing up for Yahoo! Ads and getting access to them easier. After completing a simple application form, start getting access to ads and monetizing offerings within a few days. And best of all, both ads and search results continue to be from the same service, and developers get one simple statement at the end of the month. Learn more from the documentation and in the FAQ.

·      New Markets — This morning we added more than 10 new markets for which we now serve search results. Flemish you say, well we got it covered. See a full list for all the various services.

It has been a momentous year for Yahoo! Search BOSS, from the launch of BOSS v2 in April, continued addition of new features, and today’s news of the new BOSS Portal and additional API updates.

Please keep a watch out on the Yahoo! Search blog and on the BOSS API Yahoo! group for  many more interesting additions coming your way for 2012.

– Ashim Chhabra and the Yahoo! Search BOSS team: Nagesh Pobbathi, Varun Aggarwal, Rahul Hampole, Himanshu Bafna, Srinivas Deeduvanu, Gloria Chien, and Eshwar Rao

We are introducing two new, important features today on Yahoo! Image search to help users get the best out of searching for photos online: social sharing and continuous scrolling.

Yahoo! Image Search now provides the ability to share any image through Facebook and Twitter. By clicking on the image from the search results page, users can browse effortlessly through full-size images via the desktop browser and share with their preferred network of family and friends.

 

In addition to social sharing, users can scroll down the Yahoo! Image search results to see more and more photos! Type a query for a current event and users will see photos pertaining to breaking news, along with the ability to continuously scroll through the results – all unique to Yahoo! Image Search.

Available for all four sections – Top Images, Latest, Galleries and Facebook – we believe the continuous scrolling and social sharing features will provide the most effective discovery and sharing experience for all image search queries. This, together with the richer content that is uniquely offered by Yahoo!, will offer users an even better, more immersive search experience.

So what are you waiting for, check out some amazing examples below and start scrolling pages of photos on Yahoo! Image Search today!

–– Girish Ananthakrishnan, Krishanu Seal and Caroline Tsay of the Image/Video Search product team

iPhone takes the top spot in 2011; Casey Anthony pled her way onto the list; Kim Kardashian joins the list again; and Osama bin Laden’s death captivated the world

Today Yahoo! Inc. announced the 10^th anniversary edition of its Year in Review (yearinreview.yahoo.com), the highly-anticipated annual look-back that identifies the top stories and trends of the year based on nearly 700 million monthly unique visitors* activity on the network and billions of consumer searches. The annual look-back of aggregated visitor activity is a gauge for worldwide interests.  The 2011 Year in Review is available in 17 versions including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and United States**.

The top search term of 2011 didn’t go to a person or a news event, but to a technological marvel. The iPhone led the 2011 search queries, bypassing a reality TV star’s marriage and pending divorce, a notorious criminal defendant, and America’s most wanted terrorist.

Women in pop culture dominated the Top 10 list. Kim Kardashian, who first appeared in 2009 filling in the Paris Hilton celebutante role, jumped to No. 3. Jennifer Lopez cracked the Top 10 after a nine-year absence, thanks to her “American Idol”-fueled comeback. And singer Katy Perry reaped musical nominations and either tied or broke record sales.

Top Searches on Yahoo! in 2011

1. iPhone
2. Casey Anthony
3. Kim Kardashian
4. Katy Perry
5. Jennifer Lopez
6. Lindsay Lohan
7. American Idol
8. Jennifer Aniston
9. Japan earthquake
10. Osama bin Laden

For 10 years, Yahoo!’s Year in Review has analyzed its aggregate insights to determine the top stories, compelling newsmakers, and viral fads that provide a snapshot of the year. What’s notable is how the Year in Review has evolved, going from a “list of lists” to an interactive editorial site. The list of top trends has also changed: from the PlayStation 2, which topped the list 10 years ago, to our new favorite toy, the iPhone, our unending fascination with technology is confirmed. And, although Britney Spears may have reigned supreme for four straight years, new obsessions have taken over. This year the former pop princess did not even crack the Top 10 searches.

Look Back: Top Searches on Yahoo! Over the Past 10 Years

·       2011: iPhone

·       2010: BP Oil Spill

·       2009: Michael Jackson

·       2008: Britney Spears

·       2007: Britney Spears

·       2006: Britney Spears

·       2005: Britney Spears

·       2004: American Idol

·       2003: KaZaA

·       2002: PlayStation 2

With the iPhone topping the list this year, it should come as no surprise that in 2011, consumers wanted information on the go. They searched on Yahoo! through their favorite mobile devices to connect with MLB scores, learn the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, see where Hurricane Irene would hit land, and even make sure they could beat their friends in the latest game of Scrabble.

Top Mobile Searches on Yahoo! in 2011

1. iPhone 5
2. Powerball
3. MLB
4. Scrabble cheat
5. Casey Anthony
6. Hurricane Irene 2011
7. Kim Kardashian
8. Translator
9. Amy Winehouse
10. May 21, 2011 Rapture

While the Top 10 overall list focuses on related keywords, the Top News list involves a wider range of searches, and includes an analysis of the most-read news stories on Yahoo!. The death of a monster who haunted a generation, a record magnitude earthquake that swept away burning towns, the trial of the summer, a sudden death, and a royal wedding, all made the Top News list this year.

Top News Searches and Stories on Yahoo! in 2011

1. Casey Anthony trial
2. The royal wedding
3. Death of Osama bin Laden
4. Japan earthquake and tsunami
5. Amanda Knox trial
6. Death of Amy Winehouse
7. Arab Spring
8. Libya/Ghadafi
9. Arizona shooting
10. Unemployment

The Top Obsessions list combines a fevered and sustained burst of searches with a viral fixation. In 2011, topping the list required a bit of tiger blood. But, before “tiger blood” cracked pop-culture vernacular, “tiger mom” was already a full-blown meme, thanks to Amy Chua’s memoir, “The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.” And when tigers weren’t enough for us, we turned to birds — Angry Birds, which was downloaded millions of times, decorated a thousand birthday cakes, and became the year’s hot Halloween costume.

Top Searched Obsessions on Yahoo! in 2011

1. Charlie Sheen
2. The Rapture
3. Tiger Mom
4. “Friday” (Rebecca Black)
5. Angry Birds
6. Planking
7. Extreme couponing
8. Government shutdown
9. Game of Thrones
10. Mortgage rates

Last year, searches reflected a still-skeptical country, as people continued to vie for jobs and unemployment topped the financial searches.  This year, a bit of optimism: Unemployment searches dropped to No. 9, and instead of foreclosures, mortgage rates piqued consumer interest.

Top Financial Searches on Yahoo! in 2011

1. Dow Jones Index
2. Gold prices
3. FAFSA
4. Gas prices
5. Oil prices
6. Coupons
7. Silver prices
8. Sallie Mae
9. Unemployment
10. Mortgage Rates

Amid all the global uprisings and threats of domestic government shutdowns, we had 22 days to be utterly absorbed by the United States battling Japan on a soccer field in Frankfurt — and we were happy about the maiden win for the women soccer players who represented a nation recovering from a record earthquake and tsunami.But, when it came to individual athletes, Danica Patrick drove to the top of the leader-board, and tennis’s leading ladies served up a platter of upsets and buzz-worthy outbursts.

Top Searched Athletes in Yahoo! in 2011

1. Danica Patrick
2. Tiger Woods
3. Manny Pacquiao
4. Maria Sharapova
5. Serena Williams
6. Kris Humphries
7. Hope Solo
8. Kobe Bryant
9. Lamar Odom
10. Caroline Wozniacki

The economy, health care, and unemployment continue to dominate political debates, especially as we move into a presidential election year. However the issues were often overshadowed by controversy and scandal. From John Edwards’s trial to Herman Cain’s sexual harassment allegations and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s illegitimate child, the activities of politicians across the country were under intense scrutiny in 2011.

Top Politician Searches on Yahoo! in 2011

1. Sarah Palin
2. Barack Obama
3. Michele Bachmann
4. John Edwards
5. Arnold Schwarzenegger
6. Hillary Clinton
7. Herman Cain
8. Ron Paul
9. Rick Perry
10. Jesse Ventura

With new music rising to the top of the charts every week, searches on Yahoo! for music lyrics offer a glimpse into the songs that really seem to resonate with listeners.

Top Music Lyric Searches on Yahoo! in 2011:

1. Super Bass — Nicki Minaj
2. The Lazy Song — Bruno Mars
3. Grenade — Bruno Mars
4. Rolling in the Deep — Adele
5. Someone Like You — Adele
6. Look at Me Now — Chris Brown
7. Born This Way — Lady Gaga
8. You Belong With Me — Taylor Swift
9. Pumped Up Kicks — Foster The People
10. Just the Way You Are — Bruno Mars

Movies and junk food go hand in hand. In 2011 people were glued to the big screen watching the magic of Harry Potter and the mayhem of “The Hangover”. And move over cupcakes. There are some new treats on the block.

Top Movie Searches on Yahoo! in 2011

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
2. Twilight: Breaking Dawn
3. Transformers 3
4. Tron Legacy
5. Black Swan
6. X-Men: First Class
7. Captain America
8. Just Go With It
9. The Hangover, Part II
10. Fast Five

Top Dessert Searches on Yahoo! in 2011

1. Ice cream
2. Dippin’ Dots
3. Cake pops
4. Peanut butter cookies
5. Chocolate cake
6. Peach cobbler
7. Banana bread
8. Sugar cookies
9. Rice Krispie treats
10. Girl Scout cookies

What’s ‘Your Best Shot’ from 2011?

Yahoo! is asking people to go to Flickr and share a look into their own year through the “Your Best Shot 2011” group. Consumers can submit their best photo of the year — an image that represents their year, a turning point in their life, or just their favorite shot — and share with other members on Flickr, and possibly the broader community on the Flickr blog. To join the group and submit a photo, please visit: flickr.com/groups/yourbestshot2011/

For more about the Yahoo! 2011 Year in Review and other top searches, go to yearinreview.yahoo.com or search for “2011 Year in Review” on Yahoo.com.

 

We have released an update to the Yahoo! Search App for iPhone and iPod touch, available now for download on the App Store. We’ve done a major overhaul to bring the familiar browser experience we all know and love on the iPhone and iPod touch, along with many new features that will enhance searching on the go!

Let’s take a stroll through what’s new within the app:

Local Tabs: Use the top navigation box to quickly find nearby bars, restaurants, ATMs and more with one simple click.

Trending Topics: View the most current and popular searches by topic on the home page, with direct access to news, images and tweets.

Voice Search: Skip the typing. Just talk and we’ll do all the work to help make the search easier and faster.

 

Search and download iPhone apps: Search and find more iPhone apps that fit your lifestyle, with direct links to the App Store for quick and easy download right on the device.

Sophisticated New Look: Rich, high-quality information for many search terms in a variety of categories including sports, news, entertainment and finance.

Give it a tap to start your new and improved Yahoo! Search experience today and let us know what you think!

– Justine Shen, with the Yahoo! Search mobile team: Anand Chandrasekaran, Eric Hennings and Erik Jessen

 

With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing Webmaster Tools. Webmasters should now be using the Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure that their websites continue to get high quality organic search traffic from Bing and Yahoo!. Site Explorer services will not be available from November 21, 2011.