Miley Cyrus tops Yahoo search in 2013

Pop singer Miley Cyrus and the trial of boyfriend-killer Jodi Arias dominated Yahoo's online searches in 2013, the web search engine said on Tuesday, while rapper-producer duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis dominated music streams on Spotify.

Cyrus, 21, generated the most overall searches on Yahoo this year, overtaking reality television personality Kim Kardashian, who topped the list last year.

Cyrus has had an attention-filled 2013, in which she grabbed headlines for her breakup with actor-fiance Liam Hemsworth, danced provocatively on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in August, and released her new album "Bangerz" in October.

The murder trial of 33-year-old Arias, who was found guilty in May of killing her boyfriend Travis Alexander at his Phoenix-area home, captivated the public over five months with bizarre testimony and graphic sexual evidence, helping it become the most searched news item on Yahoo.

Arias' trial was followed on Yahoo by the Affordable Care Act and its common name "Obamacare," which were counted as one search term, as the second most-searched news story, while the Boston Marathon bombing in April came in third.

President Barack Obama was the top-searched political figure, topping ailing Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, at No. 2, and former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at No. 3.

While Cyrus topped Yahoo's overall searches, R&B singer Beyonce topped Microsoft's Bing search engine as the most-searched person, while Kardashian's first child, daughter North West she had with rapper Kanye West, topped Ask.com's top celebrity search terms.

Online music-streaming site Spotify also released its 2013 year in review on Tuesday and named Seattle's rapper-producer duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as the year's most-streamed artist.

The pair have seen their career skyrocket this year as their debut album "The Heist" spawned hit singles "Thrift Shop," "Same Love" and "Can't Hold Us," which was the most-streamed single.

Shazam, the music-identifying online app, also named Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as its most "Shazamed" artist, with 11.7 million tags throughout the year. R&B singer Rihanna came second with 8.4 million tags. She was also named Spotify's most-streamed female artist for a second consecutive year.


/Reuters/