It’s getting to be that time of year. December is just around the corner then a new year will sneak up on us quickly. Bing sent us its lists of top searches and top people searches for the year 2010. 

The lists illustrate a (possibly unhealthy) obsession with celebrities. "While Michael Jackson was number one and topical items like Swine Flu and Stock Market appeared in the top 10 in 2009, the tables have turned this year, with 2010 reflecting the growing appetite for celebrity news," a representative for Bing tells WebProNews.

The top ten overall searches in 2010 on Bing have been:

1) Kim Kardashian 
2) Sandra Bullock 
3) Tiger Woods 
4) Lady Gaga 
5) Barack Obama 
6) Hairstyles 
7) Kate Gosselin 
8) Walmart 
9) Justin Bieber
10) free

Similarly, the top people searches have been:

1) Kim Kardashian 
2) Sandra Bullock 
3) Tiger Woods 
4) Lady Gaga 
5) Barack Obama 
6) Kate Gosselin 
7) Justin Bieber 
8) Jesse James 
9) Lindsay Lohan 
10) Jennifer Aniston
11) Michael Jackson

"This year’s #1 searched for topic on Bing.com was Kim Kardashian, who won top searched by a landslide – with 20% more searches than #2 Sandra Bullock," the rep says. "In fact, 2009 top searched Michael Jackson dropped to the #11 position for most popular people searched on Bing in 2010, and the only repeat top 10 searched item was Kate Gosselin (last year’s #8) – although this year she appeared alone – minus Jon."

"The struggling economy is also reflected in this year’s top searches, with discount retailer Walmart and the topic ‘free’ appearing in the top 10," she points out.

We’ll no doubt start seeing similar lists pop up soon from other search providers, and then we can compare the user bases for each. I’m guessing that they won’t be incredibly different. It will be particularly interesting to compare those from Bing users and Yahoo users, given that Bing is now providing Yahoo’s results.

I find it a little interesting that "hairstyles" came in at number 6 on Bing’s overall list among so many celebrities. Could it be related to Kim Kardashian (Kim Kardashian hairstyles a suggestion for the ‘kim kardashian’ query). Thoughts? Please share.

Update: A Microsoft spokesperson tells us, "Hairstyles made the top 10 list because people were searching for everything from celebrity hairstyles to special occasion styles to styles by hair type. Celebrities influenced the styles, with short cuts on newbie Carey Mulligan and the classic Halle Berry trending in the hairstyle searches. Although hair is of interest year-round, summer appeared to be the time when new hairstyle exploration gained momentum."