The question I always get — and love — is the “why” behind searches.

It’s tempting to look at a search as a gauge of popularity — I look at and talk about them every day in my role as a Buzz senior editor, and I have to repeat this disclaimer to myself. A search for information, at its face, is neutral. Its motivations may arise from curiosity, by fear, by lust, by anger, by boredom, by love, whatever complex emotional machinery that controls our daily actions.

Still, we’re always looking for signs that reflect who we are as a society. As the Yahoo! Buzz team looks back on 2007, we scanned the cumulative pool of searches to gauge patterns and come up with the Top 2007 Trends in Search. A billion (or so) searches can give a sketch portrait of a culture in motion. Searching in 2007, for instance, reflected your fascination with fame (Paris Hilton), re-emerging environmental activism (global warming), and mainstream evolution of social networking (Facebook). The interests show that you have long been active participants, consumers, advocates, and citizens — you just need the means to find information and a method to enact social and/or cultural change.

Keeping in mind that searches aren’t a popularity contest, the fact that, say, music artist Fergie of the Black-Eyed Peas has more of an online following than President George W. Bush doesn’t mean she’s more influential or more compelling. We don’t need to bemoan the end of civilization if Disney’s “High School Musical 2” drew more online attention than the attorney general hearings. Remember, we search because we want more information about something that we don’t get from our regular sources. News stories may not get as many searches because people are getting what they need from other media outlets.

I will say that one trend that has emerged in the past several years is that the Web has become an integral part of the news cycle, especially in the case of breaking news or ongoing mysteries (Natalee Holloway, Madeleine McCall). This became especially apparent in 2007 with the San Diego fires and the Virginia Tech shooting. People rushed online to get print and broadcast updates, not only from national outlets, but also regional reporters. As a former features reporter, I see that as underscoring the importance of local reporting in a day of downsized newsrooms, as the public wants authoritative, inside information from professionals who cover their communities every day.

The modern-day news cycle has also incorporated web cams, social networking sites, institutional web sites (e.g. product recalls), and Wikipedia. The number one news search perhaps illustrates most keenly the intersection of citizen bystander and the Web: camera phone footage of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s last moments sparked a Web frenzy.

I’ve given away a few of the searches that consumed you, from celebrity downslides to environmental action. Visit our site to see other search trends that emerged in 2007 or read more on our Yahoo! Search blog.

Vera Chan
Senior Editor, Yahoo! Buzz

Aquadots photo from soumit.