The presidential elections dominated user searches this year, according to AOL’s annual lists of top Web, mobile and video searches across more than 40 categories for 2008. But celebrities continued to be hot topics for searchers as well. The rankings are based on the people, places and topics that received the largest volume of Web and mobile search queries on AOL Search, http://search.aol.com, and on Truveo, AOL’s leading video search engine, http://www.truveo.com.

This year, Barack Obama topped the list in the Newsmakers category – in fact, politicians occupied 7 out of the top 10 spots on this category. The presidential election was also the Top Searched News Story, while elections-related videos – including will.i.am’s “Yes, We Can” video, Paris Hilton’s response to John McCain’s campaign ad, and Barack Obama’s victory speech in Chicago – were among the most searched videos on Truveo.

At the same time, America couldn’t get enough of celebrities and pop culture with searches for Britney Spears, a pregnant man and music videos all among the hottest searches. Mobile consumers took a keen interest in staying social while on the go by tapping MySpace, AIM, MocoSpace and Facebook onto the list of top searches from mobile devices.

“What people are searching for online is a strong reflection of what’s captivating their attention offline and throughout their daily lives,” said John Kannapell, Senior Vice President of AOL Search. “While the economy and the elections grabbed the majority of headlines and consumers’ mindshare this year, America’s continuing obsession with celebrities and pop culture were also clearly evident across Web, mobile and video searches.”

Highlights from this year’s top Web, mobile and video searches include:

Top News Stories: Political and Athletic Juggernauts Rule

This year’s historic “presidential election” was the most searched news story, followed by the Olympics. Bailout came in at No. 3, followed by Hurricane Ike at No. 4 and unemployment at No. 5.

Top Newsmakers: An Agent for Change Tops the List

“Barack Obama” and his path to the White House led him to No. 1 among newsmakers in 2008, with vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin coming in at No. 2. Pregnant Man (No. 3); Hillary Clinton (No. 4) and John McCain (No. 5) rounded out the top 5.

Top Celebrities: Oops, She Did It Again

All eyes were on Britney Spears and her road to personal recovery and professional redemption as she once again topped the list of most-searched celebrities. Trailing behind Britney were Miley Cyrus (No. 2); Kim Kardashian (No. 3); Paris Hilton (No. 4); and Oprah Winfrey (No. 5).

Top Financial Faux Pas: Wall Street On My Mind

With Wall Street’s troubles top of mind, consumers turned to the Web to dig deeper into the companies making headlines including Wachovia (No. 1); Washington Mutual (No. 2); Merrill Lynch (No. 3); AIG (No. 4) and Morgan Stanley (No. 5).

Top TV Shows: American Idol Keeps the Crown

America’s thirst for reality television showed no signs of fading. For the sixth year running, “American Idol” was the most searched television show in 2008, followed by “Dancing with Stars” (No. 2). Rounding out the top five were “Hannah Montana” (No. 3), which moved up a spot from 2007; “The View” (No. 4); and “Lost” (No. 5).

Top “How Tos” Searches

With the U.S. unemployment rate reaching its highest level in five years, it’s no wonder that queries for how to tie a tie (No. 1) and write a resume (No. 2) topped the list. Other top searches included how to draw (No. 3), how to make money (No. 4) and how to lose weight (No. 5).

Top Viral Video Searches from Truveo

Rapper and producer will.i.am’s celebrity-filled “Yes, We Can” video, a song based on Barack Obama’s New Hampshire speech, topped Truveo’s list of top viral video searches. Other hot viral video searches on Truveo were: “Paris Hilton Responds to John McCain Ad” (No. 2); “Fred Goes Swimming” (No. 3); “Kobe Jumps Over Car” (No. 4); and “Valentina Hasan Sings ‘Ken Lee’” (No. 5).

Top Mobile Searches

More and more people turned to their mobile devices to connect with friends while on the go as the volume of mobile searches continued to grow in 2008. MySpace was the leading mobile search term followed by AIM (No. 2); iPhone (No. 3); MocoSpace (No. 4); and Facebook (No. 5).

Other top searches on AOL Search in 2008, http://hot.aol.com/2008, include:

** Top Search Terms: 1) Dictionary; 2) Weather; 3) Games; 4) Maps; 5) Lyrics; 6) University; 7) Movies; Calendar; 9) Zip Codes; 10) Horoscopes.

** Top Athletes: 1) Danica Patrick; 2) Tiger Woods; 3) Tom Brady; 4) Kimbo Slice; 5) Tony Romo; 6) John Cena; 7) Eli Manning; Brett Favre; 9) Tony Stewart; 10) Serena Williams.

** Top Movies: 1) Juno; 2) High School Musical; 3) The Dark Knight; 4) Iron Man; 5) Indiana Jones; 6) Sex and the City; 7) Jumper; No Country for Old Men; 9) Hancock; 10) Kung Fu Panda.

** Top Musicians: 1) The Jonas Brothers; 2) David Cook; 3) Chris Brown; 4) Mariah Carey; 5) Lil Wayne; 6) Rihanna; 7) Madonna; Amy Winehouse; 9) Beyonce; 10) Taylor Swift.

** Top Celebrity Babies: 1) Harlow Madden; 2) Nahla Aubry; 3) Max Bratman; 4) Max and Emma Anthony; 5) Knox and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt; 6) Maddie Briann Aldridge; 7) Sunday Rose Kidman Urban; Honor Marie Warren; 9) Parker Foster Aiken; 10) Zuma Rossdale.

** Top Diets: 1) Flat Belly Diet; 2) Weight Watchers; 3) Jenny Craig; 4) South Beach Diet; 5) Three-Day Diet; 6) Mediterranean Diet; 7) DASH Diet; Atkins Diet; 9) Medifast Diet; 10) Fat Smash Diet.

** Top Domestic Travel Destinations: 1) Las Vegas; 2) Myrtle Beach; 3) Chicago; 4) Boston; 5) New York; 6) Washington, DC; 7) Niagara Falls; Key West; 9) San Francisco; 10) Atlanta.

** Top International Travel Destinations: 1) Dubai; 2) Australia; 3) London; 4) Aruba; 5) Bermuda; 6) Cancun; 7) Jamaica; Cabo San Lucas; 9) Paris; 10) Punta Cana.

Other top video searches on Truveo, http://www.truveo.com/hot2008, include:

** Top Music Videos: 1) “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis; 2) “No Air” by Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown; 3) “Whatever You Like” by T.I.; 4) “Womanizer” by Britney Spears; 5) “Disturbia” by Rihanna; 6) “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay; 7) “7 Things” by Miley Cyrus; “Pork and Beans” by Weezer; 9) “Paper Planes” by M.I.A.; 10) “I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry.

** Top Live TV Moments: 1) Barack Obama’s victory speech in Chicago; 2) The U.S. men’s swim team winning the 4×100 meter relay in the Beijing Olympics; 3) Saturday Night Live’s Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton parody; 4) The New York Giants game-winning touchdown against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII; 5) David Cook performing “Billie Jean” on American Idol; 6) Mixed martial arts fighter Kimbo Slice losing to Seth Petruzelli; 7) Usain Bolt’s world-record breaking win in the 200 meter track final in the Beijing Olympics; The debut of the Jimmy Kimmel and Ben Affleck music video; 9) Katie Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin; 10) John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

iPhone users also turned to Truveo to search and browse through millions of videos while on the go. Since the launch of Truveo’s free video search application for the iPhone in July, http://www.truveo.com/iphone, some of Truveo’s hottest searches on the iPhone include the heartwarming “Christian the Lion” video, Leona Lewis’s “Bleeding Love” music video, and Barack Obama’s victory speech.

AOL announced a brand new homepage available here that will let consumers access multiple social networking services directly from AOL.com, becoming the first major portal to offer direct access to information from major social networking sites. This follows the move last month to provide access to multiple e-mail services from the AOL.com site, and is part of AOL’s ongoing strategy to open its homepage, http://www.aol.com, to outside services and content – offering consumers more customization options.

The new social networking feature allows consumers to post status updates to multiple social networks at once, and provides profile activity information, including new friend requests, status updates and mail notifications from services such as AIM, Bebo, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other third-party sites.

AOL.com also launched new tools and features to further personalize the user experience, bringing together third-party content and services from across the Internet. The new features give consumers more control over how content and services are displayed, letting them customize the main navigation bar by adding their own Web links, receive continuously updated local news, access RSS feeds from across the Web directly from the main page of AOL.com as well as personalize their experience with new design themes.

“As the Web becomes more fragmented, consumers want choice and relevance in their Web experiences. AOL.com is the first traditional big portal to offer access to popular social networking sites all in one place,” said Bill Wilson, Executive Vice President, AOL Programming. “Now consumers can connect with their numerous networks and information sources all from AOL.com. We have already seen success by opening up AOL.com to other e-mail providers. We will continue to enhance the appeal of our portal with the changes we are making today by adding more relevant programming, customization opportunities, greater integration of third party content, improved design and access to social networks directly from AOL.com.”

As part of this redesign, AOL’s digital advertising business Platform A, and AOL.com are offering more robust capabilities for advertisers including customized wallpapers, increased rich media capabilities, much deeper and richer content integration opportunities and more. For example, a recent one-day advertisement for a new DVD provided a chance for the advertiser to own the AOL.com homepage wallpaper for the day to reach consumers in a highly customizable and measurable way.

AOL recently announced a new AOL Mail experience, with an updated look-and-feel to match the new AOL.com. New plug-ins and shortcuts provide 1-click access to relevant AOL and third-party content and services and extend e-mail aggregation to the AOL inbox. Users can now track and use their Yahoo! Mail through AOL Mail, http://mail.aol.com.

In September, the AOL.com site began allowing consumers access to Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail accounts, in addition to AOL and AIM Mail, allowing them to check e-mail from multiple accounts without having to go from site to site. That month, year-over-year page views to AOL.com grew 34%, unique visitors were up 12%, total visits were up 15% and total minutes were up 40%, according to the September 2008 comScore Media Metrix report.

“Leveraging our acquisitions of Sphere to deliver related articles and content in the RSS Reader, and Relegence to power local news stories will improve our current offering and serve to bring consumers a differentiated experience,” added Wilson.

AOL Television has announced the launch of Outside the Box, http://www.television.aol.com/outside-the-box, a new free on-demand online series in which cast members from popular network and cable television programs interview one another using fan submitted questions. The debut episode, featuring Kate Walsh, Taye Diggs, Audra McDonald and Tim Daly from ABC’s “Private Practice” will premiere today. The season premiere of “Private Practice” airs tonight, Wednesday, October 1 (9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

The new series will put the power directly into the hands of television fans, allowing them to create and submit questions that will be used during the interviews. The one-on-one format features two or more cast members interviewing one another about the show, their characters and their antics on and off the set. Each episode will last no more than ten minutes and also include comical outtakes and bonus clips. AOL Television will debut episodes periodically. Forthcoming episodes include ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” with Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant; “Dirty Sexy Money” with Lucy Liu and Peter Krause; “Life on Mars” with Michael Imperioli and Jason O’Mara; and “Scrubs” with Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison. The series will be filmed remotely or at AOL’s studios in Los Angeles or New York.

“Outside the Box signifies our ongoing commitment in providing consumers with the highest possible production quality, while simultaneously providing fans with unparalleled access to top talent,” said Mike Rich, Senior Vice President. “This new series will provide advertisers a new venue for high impact custom solutions while reaching a large scale built-in audience who consume, and then share video on the web.”

Outside the Box is supported by AOL’s digital advertising business, Platform-A, http://www.platform-a.com, which will identify key opportunities for advertisers and provide relevant display advertising and content-targeted links on the sites.

The series will be part of AOL Television’s growing offerings, which include free and full streaming of a myriad of current and classic TV series, daily video highlights of last night’s top television moments, celebrity interviews, photos and gossip, as well as interactive quizzes, user-polls and original editorial features. AOL Television is one of the most trafficked sites on the Web for television fans with more than 14 million unique visitors according to the August 2008 comScore Media Metrix report.

Outside the Box is an outgrowth of Moviefone’s signature series, Unscripted, in which cast members from film interview each other using user-submitted questions. Since the series launched in 2004, Moviefone has filmed more than 60 episodes of the series, including interviews with Hollywood A-list talent including Johnny Depp, Will Smith, George Clooney and Halle Berry. In addition to Unscripted, the new show joins AOL’s roster of long running original series that include AOL Music Sessions, The DL, and The Interface.

It’s about time that this happened, the industry is underestimating the pervasiveness of the widget marketing tools that are available to advertisers today.  This integration should help bring widget advertising to the mainstream marketers. AOL’s Platform-A announced that it will offer Goowy’s widget creation and management services as part of its widget distribution offering for advertisers. Goowy enables the creation, syndication and measurement of widget-based campaigns as a free, value-added service across Platform-A’s properties and networks. For those of you who don’t know Platform-A, it is AOL’s digital advertising business. Goowy forms part of AOL’s People Networks business and was acquired by AOL in February 2008.

Advertisers can now utilize Goowy to create customized “grabbable” web widgets and distribute them across Platform-A, which includes AOL’s leading media properties and thousands of sites within Advertising.com’s third-party network. In addition, widgets may also be served as ads within Bebo and Facebook applications that are part of the Widgnet publisher network, launched by Advertising.com earlier this year. While most widget platforms charge additional CPM rates, Platform-A offers the service as a value-add for qualified advertisers.

“Platform-A is committed to expanding widget advertising services, and Goowy is one way to ensure that our customers generate value from their campaigns,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “Widget-based advertising is gaining momentum in the industry, and Platform-A’s network approach allows our customers to build brands, encourage interaction, and drive site traffic – all at scale.”

Widget campaigns, powered by Goowy, will leverage Advertising.com’s AdLearn technology for full optimization across Platform-A based on clicks, installs, and other campaign objectives. By distributing widget ads across Platform-A, marketers will be able to create more compelling ad units, include more dynamic content, and build longer-term relationships with the growing number of consumers who are increasingly downloading applications to their social network pages.

Additionally, widget publishers can utilize Goowy for free by becoming part of the Widgnet publisher network and agreeing to display advertising within their widgets. Any revenue generated from these publisher widgets will then be split back with the publisher.

Goowy Media forms part of AOL’s newly created People Networks business unit, which combines social media network Bebo, the AIM and ICQ personal communications network, and social search and answer service Yedda. People Networks’ collection of community platforms reaches 80 million unduplicated users worldwide.

AOL announced this morning that Gannett has selected ADTECH to be its online ad serving provider. ADTECH is part of Platform-A, AOL’s digital advertising business.  By striking a relationship with one of the nation’s leading online media companies, ADTECH is significantly expanding in the U.S. market. ADTECH has been an established ad serving leader in Europe for the past ten years.

ADTECH and Gannett have completed the migration of substantially all of Gannett’s digital properties to ADTECH’s Helios IQ ad serving solution. The rollout ultimately will include all of Gannett’s local newspaper Web sites, digital properties for all of Gannett’s 19 local broadcast markets, USATODAY.com – one of the most popular national news sites on the Web – and many targeted media properties, such as Gannett’s network of moms sites. Since late 2007, ADTECH, has built data centers in Virginia and California to serve U.S. customers.

“This agreement is a significant milestone for ADTECH in terms of establishing our technology in the United States,” said Dirk Freytag, CEO of ADTECH. “We’ve been working extremely hard over the past year to solidify our infrastructure in order to fully support U.S. customers. The opportunity to showcase our capabilities with a top media company like Gannett makes all that work worthwhile.”

“We selected ADTECH because their top tier technology will allow us to seamlessly execute and deliver for advertisers at both a local and national level,” said Chris Saridakis, Gannett Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer. “With the ADTECH platform, advertisers of all sizes will be able to easily reach our affluent, active online audience, whether it’s through broad national campaigns, audience segmentation, or locally targeted campaigns. Gannett can now enable national and local advertisers to engage with any audience segment they could ever hope to reach.”

“Our partnership with Gannett is a testament to ADTECH’s tireless efforts to establish itself as a digital ad serving leader in the United States, and a reflection of Platform-A’s commitment to be the solution of choice for publishers looking to maximize online ad revenues,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “Our goal is to provide Web publishers with the best tools and technologies to manage and monetize their advertising inventory, and we’re thrilled that Gannett has selected ADTECH as its ad serving partner in the United States.”

Gannett reaches more than 25 million monthly unique visitors, as measured by Nielsen//NetRatings. Helios IQ will deliver more than five billion monthly ad impressions monthly across Gannett’s online network.

Last month we wrote about BigString (coverage), a provider of social networking messaging applications user-controllable email and instant messaging services. Today they announced the acquisition of Buddystumbler.com, an IM-based social network that allows users to meet people via free online chats on AOL AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger and Google Talk. The website will be integrated with BigString IM, the company’s new cross-platform IM application.

BigString issued nine hundred thousand shares of restricted common stock to Buddystumbler. The company also agreed to provide certain advisory services to BigString to assist in the transition and integration of the websites. In consideration of these advisory services, Buddystumbler will receive a percentage of the net proceeds derived from the advertising revenues generated.

Users of Buddystumbler’s social network can create profiles that include photos, descriptions, interests, locations, videos and blogs. It allow permits users to search other user profiles and meet people on supported IM chat platforms.

“There are millions of users on existing IM networks chatting with friends, family and colleagues. Buddystumbler enables them to expand their social network through an easy way to find other like-minded people to chat with,” said Han Yuan, President and Founder of Buddystumbler. “The integration of the BigString IM and Buddystumbler’s social networking technologies will create an exciting and unique social network that leverages existing IM platforms while providing users with a new level of connectivity and privacy.”

“With this acquisition we have the opportunity to create a unique social IM platform that incorporates IM, geographic location, personal preferences and the security functionality of our self-destructing technology,” stated Darin Myman, President and CEO of BigString Corporation. “We are very excited about all of the possibilities that the Buddystumbler technology brings to our company.”

AOL has brought three new iPhone OS applications to the market: AIM, AOL Radio, and Truveo, the leading video search engine.  Each of them are available as free downloads from the Apple App Store now.

“With AIM, AOL Radio and Truveo for the iPhone, consumers now have access to the world’s largest instant messaging network, over 350 streaming radio stations and millions of online videos,” said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice President of AOL. “Over the past twelve months, AOL has revitalized its Mac development efforts and we’re thrilled to be bringing our world-class communications and multi-media experiences to iPhone users around the world via the App Store.”

The new AIM, AOL Radio and Truveo applications for the iPhone were built using Apple’s iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) and provide a great user experience, with added features unique to the iPhone.

• AIM for iPhone brings together all of the core features of AIM – such as real-time communication, the Buddy List window and the ability to see when friends and contacts are online and available to chat – and combines them with a host of new capabilities that make IM’ing from the iPhone easy and convenient, whether over a Wi-Fi, EDGE, or 3G network.

AIM has been designed from the ground up to take advantage of the iPhone’s unique user interface and advanced capabilities. New features developed specifically for the iPhone include the use of Gestures, which allows users to simply tap to start a new message or to swipe a finger to switch between conversations; Favorites, which puts the buddies with whom you keep in touch at your fingertips; and the ability to easily incorporate a photo taken with the iPhone’s built in camera as a Buddy Icon. AIM for iPhone will be available to users worldwide.

• AOL Radio for iPhone gives users in the U.S. immediate, free access to more than 350 best-in-breed stations including more than 150 local CBS RADIO stations and custom channels and more than 200 AOL Radio stations spanning 25 musical genres. AOL Radio for iPhone leverages the iPhone’s Core Location framework to detect a user’s location and automatically displays CBS RADIO stations nearest to the user. Additionally, AOL Radio for iPhone automatically adapts to the current connection speed of the device providing low-bandwidth streams when on a cellular network versus higher quality audio for Wi-Fi connections.

At Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference in June, AOL Radio was highlighted during the iPhone Developer Showcase and received the Apple Design Award for “Best Entertainment Application.”

• Truveo Mobile Video Search for iPhone maximizes the device’s premium video experience and makes it easy for users to search and browse through millions of online videos while on the go. Truveo’s leading video search engine provides direct links to video content that’s been optimized for the iPhone from a wide variety of video sources including CNN, Discovery Channel, HBO, NBC, PBS, Comedy Central, MTV and YouTube. Localized versions of Truveo Mobile Video Search for iPhone will be available for the U.S., Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK, with support for additional countries to follow in the coming months.

All three applications are available for free from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or here.

In addition to the AIM, AOL Radio and Truveo applications for the iPhone, AOL has also optimized many of its popular websites and services for the iPhone’s Safari browser including; AOL.com, AOL Mail, AOL Mobile Search, AOL Money & Finance, Moviefone, AOL Food, AOL Horoscopes, AOL TV Listings and AOL Shopping.

A new web-based, cross-platform, instant messaging application that enables users to send self-destructing or regular IMs across AOL’s AIM, Yahoo’s Messenger, MSN’s Messenger and Google’s Gtalk has been introduced by BigString. The free web application incorporates BigString’s IM platform that allows a user to send IMs which self-destruct without being copied, logged or screen-printed by the recipient. The free service is available here. In addition to enabling users to send IMs from one service to another, the patent-pending IM technology leaves no trail or copy of the IM on any server once the message self-destructs. The time for self-destruction is set by the sender, and can be set to disappear in as little as a few seconds to more than an hour. The sender can also choose a number of visual effects for the self-destruction. A message will disappear in real time simultaneously from both the sending and receiving IM screens whether the message was sent to an account at AOL’s AIM, Yahoo’s Messenger, MSN’s Messenger, Google’s Gtalk or BigString.

“Our new web based IM makes it very easy for IM users to have private conversations with your current IM buddy lists without having to switch to a new service,” stated Darin Myman, President and CEO of BigString Corporation. “Our strategy to quickly grow our IM user base revolves around creating unique applications such as this one that leverages the tens of millions of existing IM users.”

Today, Duncan Riley’s, The Inquisitr, announced that AOL is launching heavily into the fast growing latin market by creating separate destination site for each country with regional news, weather IM and email.  This is following FOX’s latin-centric advertising network expansion earlier this year.  I had time to speak with the SVP of FOX’s latin division, Hector Costa, who said that consumer knowledge and online engagement in latin countries is growing at an expanding rate.

And it is not just technology and media firms entering the market, earlier this month, Vidshadow, the online video platform provider, announced that they were enabling the video on the official Julio Cesar Chavez website with both their video player and advertisements.

So why are the latin market?  There were 15.7 million Hispanic Internet users in the US in 2005, according to eMarketer. This total rose to 16.7 million in 2006. Increasing at a rate of 25%, nearly 21 million Latinos will be online by 2010. This means that by 2010 the number of Hispanic Internet users will approach the number of African-American users, making Latinos the fastest-growing minority group in the US to adopt internet use. According to a Pew Study, second generation Latinos or acculturated Latinos adopt internet use even faster.

“Younger generations of US Latinos as well as second-generation Latinos coming of age currently in the US have not been exposed to some of professional boxing’s true legends,” said Brian Weymouth, President of Julio Cesar Chavez Enterprises. “With an all-time winning streak of 90-0, Julio Cesar Chavez is indeed one of those legends that will inspire Mexicans and all Latinos in the US and abroad. And now, thanks to Vidshadow, his millions of fans worldwide can relive his most triumphant moments in the ring again and again, even as they follow the budding careers of his sons, Julio, Jr. and Omar. La leyenda sigue – the Legend continues!”

Many of these latin countries are not developed to the point where they can develop their own technology, which poses an interesting opportunity to platform providers and latin focused ad networks that are domestically based.  And this appears to be a very timely era for expansion into these nations.