Amy Winehouse fans around the world turn to Google for news

(AFP)

The death of 27-year-old singer Amy Winehouse on Saturday sparked a flurry of searches by Google users in throughout the world.

Famous around the world, Amy Winehouse won five Grammy Awards for her critically acclaimed 2006 album Back to Black, one of the best-selling albums by a female solo artist of all time.

As word of the singer's death began to break, internet users around the world took to Google to confirm the news. Data from Google Insights shows that terms related to Amy Winehouse appear three times among the top ten search terms with the biggest increase in growth over the last seven days. Additionally, all five of these search terms achieved breakout status - indicating a search term with a growth of over 5,000 percent.

The global popularity of Amy Winehouse can be seen by the top ten countries where searches for her name originated - the UK, Ireland, Chile, the United States, Portugal, Canada, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Following the Norway massacre on Friday the terms "Norway" and "Anders Behring Breivik" - the man behind the attacks - also experienced large increases in growth. 

The search terms with the most significant growth worldwide in the last seven days, as  measured by Google Insights and recorded July 25, were:  

01.   amy winehouse (breakout*)
02.   amy winehouse dead (breakout*)
03.   amy winehouse death (breakout*)
04.   anders behring breivik (breakout*)
05.   norway (+600%) 
06.    ??(+400%)   Japanese term meaning "typhoon"
07.   captain america (+200) 
08.   larissa riquelùe (+200%)
09.   cricinfo (+110%)
10.   ösym (+60%)

*Breakout defines a search term that has experienced a change in growth greater than 5,000 percent.