San Francisco - Britney Spears was more popular than US president-elect Barack Obama among internet searches through 2008, according to web portal Yahoo.

The results came from ranking billions of search enquiries. Troubled-racked Britney Spears has been the top search term for seven out of the last eight years on Yahoo.

Also beating the history-making politician was World Wrestling Entertainment. But Obama shouldn't feel too bad. According to Yahoo he was the second most searched-for person and the third most searched-for term overall.

Also making the top 10 searches were teen singer Miley Cyrus in fourth place, the online game Runescape, actress Jessica Alba, anime series Naruto, actresses Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie, and the TV show American Idol.

In addition to the top 10 searches, Yahoo said the major search themes for 2008 included the economy, the Olympics and news stories.

IRS stimulus checks, followed by oil prices and gold prices were the most popular economy-related searches, while swimmer Michael Phelps was the most-searched Olympian.

Hurricanes topped the list of most popular news stories, Yahoo said, while Obama led the list of political searches ahead of the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and presidential candidate John McCain.