Sarah Palin beats Barack Obama in Google year-end report

(Getty)

Having collected billions of search queries from across the world, Google's "zeitgeist" year-end report gives an occasionally baffling insight into the minds of internet users.

Though many of the report's findings are less than surprising, ranging from this year's Olympics to deceased actor Heath Ledger, other terms may be less familiar to many in the UK. Tuenti, the fourth fastest-rising search term globally, is a Spanish social networking website, and Nasza Klasa, the seventh, is a Polish equivalent.

The results are aggregated to reflect the fastest rising and most popular searches for a variety of areas internationally, though it is unclear to what extent the results have been edited to reflect what Google regards as savoury search terms. Internet favourites such as Britney Spears, for example, feature nowhere in the information released today.

In the UK, the BBC's digital catch-up service, iPlayer, tops the list of fastest-rising terms after its launch in December 2007, though the most popular search result is 'Facebook', followed by 'BBC' and 'YouTube'.

Fastest Rising (Global)

1. Sarah Palin

2. Beijing 2008

3. Facebook login

4. Tuenti

5. Heath Ledger

6. Obama

7. Nasza Klasa

8. Wer Kennt Wen

9. Euro 2008

10. Jonas Brothers

Top UK search terms

1. Facebook

2. BBC

3. YouTube

4. eBay

5. Games

6. News

7. Hotmail

8. Bebo

9. Yahoo

10. Jobs

Fastest Rising UK Search Terms

1. iplayer

2. Facebook

3. iphone

4. YouTube

5. Yahoo Mail

6. Large Hadron Collider

7. Obama

8. Friv

9. Cam4

10. Jogos