Google, Yahoo and Ask.com all recently released lists of the top internet searches of 2008. At Yahoo, the top searches looked a lot like the year before, with six of the same keywords making Top 10 ranks, including the top two searches: Britney Spears and World Wrestling Entertainment. New in 2008 were the terms Barack Obama, Miley Cyrus, Angelina Jolie and American Idol. Some surprising entries included RuneScape, an online gaming site, and Naruto, a Japanese animation ninja series.

Google’s 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist broke down the fastest-rising search queries in 40 different countries by looking at the frequency with which search terms were entered in 2008 compared to the year before. Globally, the five fastest-rising were: Sarah Palin, Beijing 2008, Facebook, Tuenti (Spanish Facebook) and Heath Ledger. Unsurprisingly, Facebook and YouTube were listed on almost every country’s Top 10 list.

As Erick Schonfeld notes in a post on techcrunch.com, to really understand the Zeitgeist, one has to “dive into the details.” Here are a few of the more interesting “details”:

Google.com—Fastest-Rising Searches (U.S.)

Overall

1. obama
2. facebook
3. att
4. iphone
5. youtube
6. fox news
7. palin
8. beijing 2008
9. david cook
10. surf the channel

The Economy…

1. financial crisis
2. depression
3. bailout
4. mortgage crisis
5. wall street
6. oil
7. stock market
8. subprime
9. credit crisis
10. housing crisis

What is…

1. love
2. life
3. java
4. sap
5. rss
6. scientology
7. autism
8. lupus
9. 3g
10. art