With 150 million queries going through the search engine every day, the results give a fairly good indication of who and what has been grabbing the world's attention during the past 12 months.
It is no surprise that pop startlet Britney Spears tops the list of most-searched-for woman and Harry Potter tops the film league - bearing in mind that the Lord of the Rings hype did not kick in until December - but what is middle-ranking tennis player Anna Kournikova doing as number one sporting query?
Life on the Web: top Google queries 2001
Top five queries (rising)
1. Nostradamus
2. CNN
3. World Trade Center
4. Harry Potter
5. Anthrax
Top five queries (declining)
1. Pokemon
2. Olympics
3. Vote
4. Gnutella
5. Napster
Women
1. Britney Spears
2. Pamela Anderson
3. Jennifer Lopez
4. Madonna
5. Aaliyah
Men
1. Nostradamus
2. Osama Bin Laden
3. Eminem
4. Michael Jackson
5. Howard Stern
Films
1. Harry Potter
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Final Fantasy
4. Tomb Raider
5. Shrek
Video games
1. Counterstrike
2. The Sims
3. Operation Flashpoint
4. Moorhuhn 3
5. Wolfenstein
Products
1. Windows XP
2. X Box
3. Playstation 2
4. Gamecube
5. Nokia 5510
Bands
1. Beatles
2. U2
3. Nsync
4. Backstreet Boys
5. Linkin Park
Sport
1. Anna Kournikova
2. Tour de France
3. Dale Earnhardt
4. Wimbledon
5. US Open
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This was first published in January 2002
