Yahoo! aggregates the billions of searches performed across Yahoo! properties to give the pulse on what people are thinking and talking about. Searches represent the people, an instant poll every moment of the day, looking into the fleeting moods and entrenched attitudes of Internet users across the world. Each week Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot explores these trends on local and national broadcast. The devastating earthquake in New Zealand, uprising in Libya and upcoming Academy Awards are all buzzing this week in searches.

Libya

Unrest in the Middle East continues to draw people online in huge numbers.  Libya’s violent crackdown on anti-government protestors and Moammar Ghadafi’s angry speech declaring he would die a martyr before leaving the country sent searches soaring on Yahoo! this week.  People wanted to make sure they really understood what Ghadafi was saying, we saw a major spike in look-ups for the word “martyr.” Also for the term “force majeure” which is a french for “a greater force” (essentially, an act of god that would excuse a party from a contract).  Libya declared a force majeure on its oil contracts this week in the wake of the uprising. Read more on Libya searches here at the Yahoo! Buzz Log.

Earthquake
Another story that’s seen steady interest this week is the New Zealand earthquake and the desperate rescue and recovery efforts.  Yahoo! searchers wanted to know where to find New Zealand on a map, searches spiked more than 1,100%. Some of the additional Search trends include:

Questions being searched on Yahoo!:

• Where Is New Zealand
• What Time Is It In New Zealand
• Where Is New Zealand Located
• How To Dial New Zealand - How To Call New Zealand
• How Far Is Christchurch From Auckland

Academy Awards
In Hollywood – as Oscar preps ramp up so are the queries on Yahoo!.  The leading lady getting the most buzz on Yahoo! at the moment is not in the running for best actress this year.  It’s Anne Hathaway who will be co-hosting the Academy Awards with actor James Franco.  She’s getting more searches than all of the best actress nominees combined.  And despite its youthful hosts, the Oscars seem to be skewing a more mature audience. According to Yahoo! Clues data, only 17% of the searches are coming from people under age twenty-four.

Can’t get enough of the Oscars? Check out Yahoo! Movies’ exclusive coverage complete with predictions, nominees, polls, photos and more: http://oscars.movies.yahoo.com/

Check out the video for more trends spiking this week.