Live Search went live in 2006, and it has been a great year for us and our users searching the Web. With the year drawing to a close, we decided to put together lists of the top searches for 2006. These lists are the result of studying our anonymous logs for the most searched queries in all the countries and regions our users search from.

After putting together the list of the Top 10 searches for this year, we became curious about which queries gained the most popularity compared with last year. As you can see in the list of the top gainers from last year, the 2006 FIFA World Cup popularized some soccer related searches. Because soccer was so popular overall, we decided to see what else was popular in soccer searches in 2006.

When you search the Web, we know you?re looking for more than just web pages, so we put together a list of top searches for additional categories: celebrity images, news, products, and travel.

Please let us know what you think by posting comments on this blog, or by using our feedback page.

Thank you for all your searches in 2006!

Ivan Gonzalez
Program Manager, Live Search User Experience Team

Top overall searches				Top gainers from last year
1 -	Ronaldinho			1 -	Bebo
2 -	Shakira			2 -	Kak?
3 -	Paris Hilton			3 -	Zinedine Zidane
4 -	Britney Spears			4 -	Pink
5 -	Harry Potter			5 -	Scarlett Johansson
6 -	Eminem			6 -	The Pussycat Dolls
7 -	Pamela Anderson			7 -	Rihanna
8 -	Hilary Duff			8 -	Superman
9 -	Rebelde			9 -	Cristiano Ronaldo
10 -	Angelina Jolie			10 -	Victoria Beckham
Top soccer searches				Top celebrity image searches
1 -	Ronaldinho			1 -	Mariah Carey
2 -	Cristiano Ronaldo			2 -	Britney Spears
3 -	David Beckham			3 -	Christina Aguilera
4 -	Ronaldo			4 -	Jennifer L?pez
5 -	FIFA			5 -	Lindsay Lohan
6 -	Zinedine Zidane			6 -	Jessica Simpson
7 -	Real Madrid			7 -	Janet Jackson
8 -	Kak?			8 -	Angelina Jolie
9 -	Cruz Azul			9 -	Pamela Anderson
10 -	Manchester United			10 -	Jessica Alba
Top news searches				Top product searches
1 -	Natalee Holloway			1 -	digital camera
2 -	Steve Irwin			2 -	pet supplies
3 -	Iraq			3 -	iPod
4 -	Paris Hilton			4 -	Xbox 360
5 -	David Blaine			5 -	Canon
6 -	Tom Cruise			6 -	The Da Vinci Code
7 -	Chris Daughtry			7 -	Panasonic PV-GS300
8 -	North Korea			8 -	Canon EOS 30D
9 -	David Copperfield fountain of youth			9 -	PlayStation 3
10 -	Taylor Hicks			10 -	Samsung mp3 player
Top travel searches
1 -	Las Vegas
2 -	Mexico
3 -	Hawaii
4 -	Walt Disney World
5 -	Disneyland Park
6 -	Costa Rica
7 -	Italy
8 -	Canc?n, Mexico
9 -	Grand Canyon
10 -	Florida
Images are scaled down and may be protected by copyright. If you don?t own rights in an image, you may need to obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Several new enhancements of note from the Search team: Tomorrow we?re releasing the beta version of Live Search Books (http://books.live.com). Check out the user experience: very clean! With this initial release we?ve focused on making the reading experience as natural as possible.

The U.S. beta launch of Live Search Books is a big step forward in advancing the way people discover information through the integration of content that has been ?off-limits? to the traditional Search experience, until now.  This release makes tens of thousands of out-of-copyright books available from our library scanning initiative, including books from the University of California, the University of Toronto, and the British Library. In addition, we are announcing new partnerships with the New York Public Library and the American Museum of Veterinary Medicine.  The Live Search team is working hard to offer the most relevant Search service to you, our customers.  There is a lot of trusted and authoritative content that can only be found in books today.  With this beta launch we?ve taken our first steps toward making that content discoverable and easy to read.

The team is also taking this opportunity to announce an update to the beta of Live Search Academic (http://academic.live.com). We?re adding millions of new articles?primarily bio-medical content. Live Search Academic now indexes thousands of academic journals in the computer science, engineering, physics, and bio-medical fields. We?re also now indexing theses, dissertations, and books within these disciplines.

These are just a few of the most recent examples of our efforts to deliver the most relevant content available; whether it is in a book, in an academic journal or on the web.  A feedback link will be available shortly; in the meantime, please give us feedback via this blog.

            --- Cliff Guren, Director of Publisher Evangelism