Britney Spears is once again the most popular search term on Yahoo. The singer beat professional wrestling outfit World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to claim the top search ranking in 2008.

This is the seventh time in eight years that Spears has held the top spot, and the third consecutive year at number one.

Yahoo credits the top spot to Spears's tumultuous personal life and her subsequent return to the music world late in the year.

WWE continued its run alongside Spears at the top of the rankings aided by a massive online following for its television broadcasts and video game releases, according to Yahoo.

US president-elect Barack Obama stormed into the number three spot in this year's rankings. Although Obama was among the top 10 news searches in 2008, he had never cracked the top 10 overall.

Pop culture and entertainment dominated the remainder of Yahoo's Top 10. Fourth in the ranking was pop star Miley Cyrus, followed by online role-playing game Runescape. Jessica Alba was sixth, followed by Japanese cartoon Naruto.

The eighth and ninth spots went to actresses Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie, while American Idol rounded out the Top 10.

Obama also topped Google's 2008 ranking of its 'fastest movers'. Marissa Mayer, vice president of search product and user experience at Google, said in an appearance on the Today show that Obama beat Facebook, iPhone, AT &T and YouTube as the fastest rising search term.