There's a closely guarded secret here at Yahoo!. Erik Gunther (our Buzz Index Editor) freely admits to it, but some Yahoo! editors strive to conceal it or at least feign indifference to it. But truth be told, the editors at Yahoo! are just like the rest of the Yahoo! Search community when it comes to pop culture. We share your fascination with the rising and falling stars of stage, screen, and DVD. And once a year we unashamedly reveal our preferences for the obscure, the unusual, and the sensational in Yahoo! Picks of the Year.

Since we first started the feature in 1996, our Picks of the Year shows that we're just as attracted to the A- and B-listers as everyone else who hits the Search box for the latest on trends and trendsetters. But we don't just look for the same old fawning celeb web sites. We scour the Internet to discover fresh, fun, or funky creations to spotlight every day as Yahoo! Picks. Over the course of the year, we feature hundreds of sites, from fascinating photo blogs to sophomoric stunts to intriguing innovations -- as an eclectic a mix as the Web itself.

So, while you may have joined the ranks searching for Britney, Atkins, or breaking news stories, we offer a daily dose of the sites you didn't search for -- the humble and human side of the Web as well as the famous and fantastic.

You can find Yahoo! Picks at http://picks.yahoo.com/ or subscribe to daily or weekly email. Or click to add Picks to My Yahoo!.

Laura Varteressian
Yahoo! Picks Editor