What Indians searched online in 2012: Sunny Leone, Sensex, Anna Hazare, Mary Kom & more

It's that time of the year again and just like last year, we once again bring you the topics, places, people and events that topped the search lists in 2012. It has been an action-packed year, with key events like the London Olympics, Euro Cup 2012 and the US Presidential elections taking the centre stage globally.

Closer home, a number of noted politicians and celebrities such as Bal Thackeray, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Rajesh Khanna and Ravi Shankar passed away. On a cheery note, it is also the year when cricketer Sachin Tendulkar completed his 100th century – a record that may stay there for a long time. Here is a low-down on your top searches for this year.

What ranked high on Google

According to Google Zeitgeist 2012, Ek Tha Tiger and Rowdy Rathore were the most-searched-for movies in 2012, and Indo-Canadian adult movie star-turned-Bollywood actress Sunny Leone was the top trending person, followed by Rajesh Khanna and Poonam Pandey. The most-searched-for news topics included Sensex, the death of politician Vilasrao Deshmukh, Hurricane Sandy and Indian activist Anna Hazare.

Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai were the most-searched-for cities in India while Yamuna Expressway (Greater Noida), Freedom Park (Bangalore) and IBM topped the search for local places. In terms of top trending travel destinations, Kerela, Taj Mahal and the Wagah Border led the pack.

Note that while 'most searched' accounts for search queries with the largest volume of searches, 'top trending' includes search queries with the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period in 2012, as compared to 2011.

In total, the year saw 1.2 trillion searches in 146 languages.

Top search terms on Yahoo

Yahoo India's Year in Review 2012 mentions that Sunny Leone was the most-searched celebrity on the internet for 2012, thanks to her controversial entry into Bollywood with Bigg Boss 5 and Jism 2. And Arvind Kejriwal knocked off mentor Anna Hazare to become the Top Newsmaker in India for 2012.

Cricketer Virat Kohli turned out to be the Performer of the Year while Olympics Bronze medallist boxer Mary Kom was chosen Yahoo India's Person of the Year. The top Indian news events of the year happened to be a mixed bag with 'turbulence of the sky' taking the No. 1 spot. Maruti Suzuki's Manesar strike, Apple-Samsung war, fall of Indian rupee, Facebook IPO, Coalgate and cancellation of 2G licences also took the poll positions this year.

Not surprisingly, the top tech stories of the country included the Apple's iPhone 5 and the iPad mini, followed by Google glass, Facebook IPO and its acquisition of Instagram, and the social networking site crossing 1 billion user mark.

Of course, the year is not over yet, we would still like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very Happy New Year!

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)