The end of year Google zeitgeist turns up some interesting and amusing stats about what people British people have been curious about this year when using the world’s most popular search engine.

The most commonly asked query beginning with the term ‘what is’ was ‘What is AV?’ – the alternative voting system proposed by Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats as a compromise for a newer propotional representation system of voting. The public were at least curious about what it meant, even if the majority ended up not voting for it to be introduced. Unfortunately for Clegg his name was also the fastest falling search term of the year.

Other public figures who have fallen out of favour include football pundit Maradona, singer Alicia Keys and X Factor stars Alexandra Burke and Joe Mcelderry. Rising stars included Adele, YouTube cheese-pop sensation Rebecca Black and Kate Middleton.

The other terms searched by curious web surfers included piles, truffles, cookies, iCloud and copyright – perhaps by users unsure about what laws they were breaking by downloading music and films for free via torrent sharing sites.

Gossip hungry celeb news hunters dominated the searches. A spokesman for Google said “As usual, search is helping people satisfy their appetite for celebrity pictures and salacious gossip – and this year is no different, with Kim Kardashian and Rebecca Black coming to the fore and Ricky Gervais the only man gatecrashing the female-dominated top 10 celebs list.”

In sport, Arsenal was a clear winner in the news section as the second most seached term, with Manchester United way down at number 9.

Vegas, New York and Disneyland Paris came up as the top three favourite searches in travel.

And as for an explanation for what scampi is, well, you’ll just have to Google it…

Here’s a selection of top tens from UK searches….

Fastest rising people in 2011

1. Ryan Dunn
2. Adele
3. Rebecca Black
4. Ed Sheeran
5. Amy Winehouse
6. Charlie Sheen
7. Steve Jobs
8. Kate Middleton
9. Nicki Minaj
10. Darren Criss

Fastest falling people

1. Nick Clegg
2. Maradona
3. Alicia Keys
4. Heidi Montag
5. Alexandra Burke
6. Hayley Williams
7. Joe Mcelderry
8. Stephenie Meyer
9. Robert Pattinson
10. Shakira

Top Travel Destinations

1. Las Vegas
2. New York
3. Disneyland Paris
4. Jamaica
5. Orlando
6. Barbados
7. Hawaii
8. Caribbean
9. Florida
10. Cuba

Top searches for ‘How to’ in 2011

1. How to revise
2. How to snog
3. How to reference
4. How to wallpaper
5. How to draw
6. How to sleep
7. How to flirt
8. How to geek
9. How to pronounce
10. How to shuffle

Top searches for ‘What is’ in 2011

1. What is AV
2. What is scampi
3. What are truffles
4. What are piles
5. What is 4d
6. What are cookies
7. What is copyright
8. What is zumba
9. What is icloud
10. What is probate

Top 10 Fastest Rising searches Electronics/ Gadgets 2011

1. iPod Touch 5G
2. HP Touchpad
3. Acer Aspire 5742
4. Asus Transformer
5. Dell Inspiron Duo
6. Acer Iconia
7. Beats Headphones
8. Epson Printers
9. Netgear Router
10. 32-inch TV

Fastest rising movies in 2011

1. Breaking Dawn
2. Final destination 5
3. Mean girls 2
4. True grit
5. Conan the barbarian
6. Scream 4
7. The Inbetweeners
8. Little fockers
9. Transformers 3
10. Unstoppable

Top searches on Google News

1. BBC News
2. Arsenal
3. Facebook
4. YouTube
5. Cheryl Cole
6. iPhone 5
7. Liverpool
8. Kate Middleton
9. Manchester United
10. Justin Bieber

Fastest rising football searches in 2011

1. Anzhi Makhachkala
2. Arsenal transfer
3. Liverpool rumours
4. Joey Barton twitter
5. Sky Sports transfer
6. Fifa ultimate team
7. Eric Abidal
8. Copa america 2011
9. Billy Sharp
10. Demba Ba

Top celebs in 2011

1. Kim Kardashian
2. Victoria Beckham
3. Emma Watson
4. Scarlett Johansson
5. Jennifer Aniston
6. Britney Spears
7. Megan Fox
8. Ricky Gervais
9. Jessica Jane
10. Angelina Jolie

Fastest rising TV show in 2011

1. X Factor 2011
2. Apprentice 2011
3. X Factor usa
4. NCIS season 9
5. House season 8
6. Glee season 3
7. Thundercats 2011
8. Big Brother 13
9. Supernatural season 7
10. Smallville season 10
 

Fastest rising sports searches in 2011

1. Haye vs Klitschko
2. Olympic tickets 2012
3. Arsenal transfer
4. Six Nations 2011
5. Wimbledon 2011
6. Grand National 2011
7. Wrestlemania 27
8. Copa America 2011
9. Randy Savage
10. Dan Wheldon