Australians were more interested in new gadgets like the iPad and iPhone 4 than the federal election or BP Oil spill according to a ranking of popular news searches on Google and Yahoo7 for this year.

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Google's “fastest rising news stories” are considered an indicator of popular trends by the company, and gadgets featured heavily in its top-ten ranking, with the iPad claiming number 3 spot, and iPhone at number 4 on both Google and Yahoo7's most popular searchers for the year.

And while Google's own Android smartphone operating system took the number 7 spot, the fastest rising general searches also revealed the growing influence of the social networking with video chat site Chatroulette, and blogging site tumblr featuring in the top ten.

But even more important than the lastest gizmos to Australians were news updates on the Chile earthquake and events in Haiti, which were the fastest rising news searches this year. We also demonstrated our devotion to reality TV stars, with celebrities Bruce Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Kendra Wilkinson featuring in the top ten most searched-for celebrities.

At the more macabre end of the scale, specific site searches for dead celebrities (listed below) turned up the likes of Johnny Depp, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, even though they all still happen to be alive.

Australians also revealed their more domestic side with searches for minestrone and macaroon recipes scattered among searches for do-it-yourself tips for fencing, painting, decking and renovations.

Yahoo7's annual Most Popular Searches, announced last week, also demonstrated a national devotion to pop culture with six out of the top 10 overall searches dominated by the likes of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.

And while BP's massive oil spill drew the most interest among the tens of millions of people that used Yahoo's worldwide search engine during 2010, it only ranked number 9 in Australia.

Bing and AOL also released their global top searches this month, with reality TV star Kim Kardashian topping Bing's list and golfer Tiger Woods leading the charge of celebrities at AOL. Kardashian came in seventh on Yahoo7's Australian list while soccer's World Cup drew huge national interest, coming in at number two.

Yahoo's search engine is the second most used on the web, but Google fields billions more search requests than Yahoo, Microsoft's Bing and AOL combined.

Google's Australian searches for 2010

Fastest-rising searches 2010

1. chatroulette

2. formspring

3. ABC3

4. world cup 2010

5. tumblr

6. ancestry.com.au

7. event cinemas

8. omegle

9. wikileaks

10. jetstar

What we searched: Google's hottest 2010 trends

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