Britney Spears series of meltdowns helped push Britney to the top of the Search pile for 2007. Whilst there were many contenders, nobody does controversy as well as Brit. This year's wild and wooly weather brought us a grounded ship, floods and mini tornadoes as well as drought conditions.

The interest rates hike put a dampner on the Great Australian dream and Australians turned to the net to find out more about their favourite entertainment topics.

Besides Britney, Jessica Alba attracted a lot of look-ups because let's face it, she's sizzling hot. Anna Nicole Smith shocked us all with her untimely death. Our interest in other hot topics included the power couple Brangelina, the must have tech gadget du jour Nano iPod, the desire for social networking tools and some of the sexiest men on the globe, Matt Damon and Justin Timberlake.

Brangelina brings new meaning to the word 'power couple'. The start of 2007 saw Angelina Jolie admitted membership to the foreign policy group think tank, The Council on Foreign Relations where she rubs shoulders with Condoleeza Rice and Dick Cheney. With a tribe of children, A-list movie-star lifestyles and humanitarian efforts, Brangelina are the 'celebrated power couple du jour'.

Meanwhile Britney has catapulted to the top of the female celebrity searches just for being Britney and her ability to shock the unshockable.

Zac Efron with the pretty boy looks and starring roles in High School Musical and Hairspray not to mention entanglement with High School Musical co-star Vanessa Hudgens scandalous online photos ensures he's the current 'it' boy.

'Lost' captured the collective TV viewing audience with suspense-filled episodes at every turn and fans turning to the web for behind the scenes gossip and interviews with the cast. The cliffhanger episode where Jack and Kate find themselves hurtled headlong into the future left an audience entranced and gasping with anticipation at what the future will hold for the Lost crew. Grey's Anatomy was another popular TV show this year and the final episode only left viewers wanting more after Burke jilted Cristina spectacularly at the altar.

2007 was the year of blockbuster sequels with Bourne Ultimatum III, Pirates III, Shrek III and Spiderman III driving punters to the ticket queues and online in droves. 'Knocked Up' starring Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl was a surprise hit and of course who could forget the evocative images from the Spartan historical fantasy '300'.

The biggest news story of the year was the Federal Election 2007 which delivered a new Government. The other news story Aussies were fascinated with - along with the rest of the world, was Anna Nicole Smith whose death shocked Australians to the core. Anna Nicole drew uncanny comparisons to Marilyn Monroe both in life and death. Equine Influenza almost halted 'the race that stops a nation' in its tracks. The Racing Industry is still reeling from the effects of the horse flu.

A triumphant start to the year with Australia's convincing victory over England in the Ashes. Another dramatic moment in Sport when David Beckham joined the LA Galaxy for $US 1 million per week, then later in the year losing to Sydney FC. The Tour de France was marred in drug controversy and Efficient won the Melbourne Cup 2007 in a year when Equine influenza threatened the Racing Industry's multi billion dollar racing industry as well as the Cup itself.

It's been a huge year for Sports scandals with drugs the primary reason behind most of the shame followed by texting and flirting thanks to Shane Warne primarily. Ben Cousins and Andrew Johns both drew a high amount of searches after they both fell prey to the lure of drugs. The specter of drugs shadowed the death of former West Coast Eagles' Chris Mainwaring. Steroids were behind the murder suicide of Chris Benoit and his family and the Tour de France did not escape its grasp with missed drug tests helping to fuel speculation. Even our favorite fish, Ian Thorpe, was implicated and later cleared of drug use.

Due to the sheer volume of interest in Britney this year, we couldn't let this yearly wrap-up go without a category dedicated just to her.

We knew Britney was hurtling herself headlong into despair in '07 when she appeared to suffer some type of breakdown at around the time of her buzz cut. She only went into further decline when a magazine shoot turned into a circus act with Brit letting her dogs soil the Zac Posen designer gowns she was modelling while she barked out instructions to her assistants from the toilet she was sitting on. Could be considered typical diva behavior except for the door which was left open for all and sundry to see. The MTV VMA appearance only served to solidify her descent into the Pop Culture abyss at a time when she was suffering family loss. Her custody battles dragged on and she eventually lost custody of her two young sons.

It seemed the whole world wanted to stage a Britney intervention. Everyone from Lance Bass to Dr Phil wanted to rescue the troubled singer. One person dedicated to shielding Brit from the cruel jibes of her detractors was Britney Superfan Chris Crocker who created the 'Leave Britney Alone' video which spawned a thousand Chris Crocker/Britney parodies online.

Lookups on environmental issues centred around climate change, the need to recycle and other important issues such as whaling however the skeptics were online too with global warming skeptic searches on the rise.

Will 2007 go down as the year of Wii? This must have hot tech gadget was heavily desired online though the tech toy of the year must go to iPod Nano. The iPod Nano is firmly entrenched in the essential gadget status for 2007.

2007 was also about scandals, namely celebrity scandals. From Naughty Vanessa in the buff to Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan all doing jail time. Lindsay Lohan was a jailbird for only 84 minutes this year narrowly beating Nicole Richie who did 82 minutes in the slammer. It's a wonder Britney didn't also make the rap sheet list but she did top the list for scandal queen 2007. With a long litany of offenses including parading around town showing her crotch, allowing her pampered pooches to defecate on designer gowns, driving around with her young son on her lap and general Britney misdemeanors, Brits has been crowned the queen of Scandal.


Check out what was hot in 2005 and 2006!