STAMFORD, Conn. -- Yahoo! Inc. announced its 2009 Year in Review which highlights the top searches and trends on Yahoo!. The annual review, which accounts for billions of searches, is a distinct way to look at people's interests and to identify the ways they use the web to find information and breaking news as it happens.

For the fourth straight year, WWE ranked in the top three of all overall 2009 Yahoo! searches. (Read more) Only Michael Jackson and the film "Twilight" graded higher in the review.

Other topics that reached the top 10 included pop sensation Britney Spears, the nationally renowned television reality series "American Idol" and the always popular NASCAR.

In 2009, the Web was an integral part of the news cycle as people rushed online to get updates about topics as diverse as the economy, foreclosures, unemployment and health care. And Yahoo! was the No. 1 ranked destination for people to get information that mattered to them most, whether they got the information from their computers or their mobile phones.

As the recession entered its second year, we saw old-fashioned thrift become a necessity, as those lucky enough to have jobs and homes scrimped, saved, and "stay-cationed". People rolled up their sleeves and dug in to shift from crisis to survival, and went online to make sense of the seeming chaos around them by tracking stories (and welcoming distractions) throughout the year.

"We saw consumers escape to the Web hoping to pursue news and their guilty pleasures: vampires, political implosions, how to moonwalk — you name it, people went online to find it," said Vera Chan, a Yahoo! Search trend analyst. "And with economic uncertainty looming, people looked for ways to find stability by searching the Web for new jobs, unemployment benefits, and ways to save through old-fashioned coupon hunting."

Top 10 Overall Searches for 2009
1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR 
10. Runescape

New to Yahoo!'s 2009 Year in Review, people can tweet their own top moments of 2009 and have an opportunity to win an iPod touch with a $100 iTunes gift card. Learn more here.

Yahoo! has created a Year in Review Rewind video. Check it out here: