At last, Britney Spears has something to be proud of. She's seen off attacks from Shakira, Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton, and her name is the most searched-for phrase on the web, at least for Yahoo! users.

Meanwhile, Google users are more concerned about the World Cup and Bebo, while homely AOL users are searching for information about the weather, dogs and maps. At least that's what the search giants' PR departments are claiming.

It's become an end of year online ritual: every December, search engines publish lists of what web users have been searching for all year. Google started the trend with it's first Google Zeitgeist report in 2001, which identified the fastest-growing searches as "Nostradamus", "CNN" and "World Trade Center".

So why are the big three lists so diverse? This is a marketing exercise, not peer-reviewed scientific research, and some bloggers and commentators have pointed out that Yahoo! and AOL's lists seem to fit very neatly with their brand positioning.

Yahoo! sees itself as innovative, fun and youthful, and delivers a list full of young celebrities. AOL sees itself as safe, easy-to-use and reliable, and delivers a very sensible, down-to-earth list. The reality may be more complicated.

This year it is also possible to see how accurate these end-of-year lists are. In August AOL inadvertently released details of 20 million search queries from 650,000 users.

Analysis of this data shows that the top ten searches (and the vast majority of the top 500) were for brand names and competitive websites like Google, Yahoo! and MySpace. Weather was 14th on the list, Dictionary was 26th and 'Dogs' was well down the list, below 'sex', 'prom dresses', 'jokes' and 'song lyrics'.

Google says that its list isn't edited (although references to Google are removed). Rather than being a list of the most popular searches, it's calculated from the fastest-growing search terms.

It shouldn't be a surprise that the British-owned social networking site Bebo, which has gained 22 million registered users in the last 18 months, was at the top. It also explains why there is no 'adult content'. Sexual proclivities are diverse but relatively unchanging. Unless millions of people suddenly develop an enthusiasm for, say, Japanese bondage, these terms are unlikely to make Google's list.

Yahoo is the most open about how its version is compiled, admitting that their editors remove company names, formats (like MP3), general terms like "football" or "music" and adult phrases. With all that out of the way, perhaps it's no surprise that Britney Spears has been near the top of their list for four years running.

The lists:

Google

1. Bebo

2. Myspace

3. World Cup

4. Metacafe

5. Radioblog

6. Wikipedia

7. Video

8. Rebelde

9. Mininova

10. Wiki

Source: Google

AOL

1. Weather

2. Dictionary

3. Dogs

4. American Idol

5. Maps

6. Cars

7. Games

8. Tattoo

9. Horoscopes

10. Lyrics

Source: AOL

Yahoo!

1. Britney Spears

2. WWE

3. Shakira

4. Jessica Simpson

5. Paris Hilton

6. American Idol

7. Beyonce Knowles

8. Chris Brown

9. Pamela Anderson

10. Lindsay Lohan

Source: Yahoo

The real AOL list

1. google

2. ebay

3. yahoo

4. yahoo.com

5. mapquest

6. google.com

7. myspace.com

8. myspace

9. www.google.com

10. www.yahoo.com

Source: Dontdelete.com

Times Online most-searched phrases in 2006

1. Su doku

2. Competitions

3. Obituaries

4. Clarkson

5. University

6. Horoscopes

7. Airmiles

8. Rich List

9. Auction

10. Education

(Duplicates like 'competition' and 'competitions' removed, as is the No 1 search, a blank space when someone presses button by mistake)

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