10. Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden didn't just top the list of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists. The al-Qaida leader was already on the agency's Most Wanted Fugitive list when the attacks came on September 11, 2001, spurring the creation of a separate list
9. Japan Earthquake
On March 11, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck northeast Japan and lasted about five minutes. The temblor, registered as the largest to hit Japan and as the fourth largest in the world since 1900, unleashed ocean waves that reached all the way to the United States. The Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami registered a death toll exceeding 15,000, and it's uncertain what effects that radiation from the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors will have in the coming years. All this made the quake and tsunami among the most monitored online events of 2011.
8. Jennifer Aniston
America's sweetheart Jennifer Aniston is enjoying her little cloud of search popularity floating at the top. We love everything about her. We want to know about her hair, her clothes, her apartment, her love life, her plans -- everything. To us, she is anything but uninteresting, and we'll jump to her defense in the blink of a pretty blue eye.
7. “American Idol”
When Simon Cowell left "American Idol" in 2010 -- after what was widely considered to be the show's worst season ever, generating relatively low record sales for winner Lee DeWyze and runner-up Crystal Bowersox -- many punters assumed the show was doomed. Cowell himself may have counted on the show failing without him, when he proclaimed that his new venture with old "Idol" crony Paula Abdul, "The X Factor," would garner "Idol"-esque ratings of 20 million or more. (Turns out he was about 9 million off.)
6. Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan hasn't had the luxury of neglect. An inexhaustible celebrity-news cycle and her own self-promotion have kept her in the public eye. While attention hasn't lessened, patience may have: Last year, a spate of headlines focused on her downfall, and continual online searches landed the star on the Obsessions list. This year, courtroom dramas, parental dysfunction, and that elusive comeback landed Lohan in the Top 10 Searches
5. Jennifer Lopez
Downsizing for "American Idol," even for a judicial chair, was a risk. The pop-culture phenomenon, stale and at a crossroads, was increasingly irrelevant. Past wins didn't seem to translate into long-term success. The best days, people thought, were in the past
4. Katy Perry
From tongue-in-cheek singer/songwriter to full-fledged superstar, Katy Perry has blasted into the pop stratosphere in 2011 -- and has the stats (and hair) to prove it.
3. Kim Kardashian
The one-woman empire called Kim Kardashian married New Jersey Nets power forward Kris Humphries, and a few searches referred to the collective union as "Kris Hump." A celebrity's romantic past is never forgotten, which is why some people checked out the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star's first union with music producer Damon Thomas and her later romance with R&B singer Ray
2. Casey Anthony
On July 15, 2008, Cindy Anthony reported her granddaughter, 2-year-old Caylee, missing. The toddler lived with her grandparents and her mom, Cindy's wild-child 22-year-old daughter, Casey, in an unassuming four-bedroom home in Orlando, Florida. Cindy told police that she hadn't seen her granddaughter in a month and that Casey hadn't been around much, either
1. iPhone
After four years, the obsession has become the year's most searched term on Yahoo!. Apple lowered prices, signed up more carriers, and made the iPhone a world phone. Although fanboys were disappointed there would be no iPhone 5 this year, the 4S upgrade was enough to spur record sales -- again. If technology leaps and bounding sales weren't enough, the iPhone got some credit in helping bring down regimes. It also symbolized the vision of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died the day after the new phone was announced
