Whitney Houston wins Google’s top search trend of the year

Whitney Houston's death triggered the highest number of internet searches on Google in 2012 than any other.

According to Google's Zeitgeist 2012  report, the late singer sent fingers searching madly, so too did Gangnam style which came in second, followed by Hurricane Sandy.

In the US, Americans were also keen for information on The Hunger Games, Jeremy Lin, Olympics 2012, Amanda Todd, Gangnam Style, Michael Clarke Duncan and Kony 2012, the New York Daily News reported.

The newspaper reported that while Psy edged out Justin Bieber for most-viewed YouTube video of all-time in the US, more people searched for Bieber's "Boyfriend" on Google this year than for the Korean rappers' viral hit "Gangnam Style."

The list also detailed the top searches among categories, including people, movies, and electronics, reported Cnet.

The iPad 3 proved the most popular search term in the consumer electronics area, folllowed by Samsung's Galaxy 3 and the iPad Mini.

To compile its 2012 report, Google said it took more than 1 trillion queries entered into its search engine for the year. It then factored in data from Google Trends and other tools, and excluded spam.

The search engine giant said the Zeitgeist lists "best reflect the spirit of 2012".