It’s the time of the year again! No, I am not talking about Christmas and year end sales, but I am talking about the top searches in Google which has been compiled and released by this most widely used search engine.

Earlier this year, I certainly didn’t believe that “anwar ibrahim” would top the most searched local (Malaysia) celebrity list!

The volume of searches topped when the Dow dropped 733 points. This simple chart is certainly interesting.

The Malaysia Google Zeitgeist has this to say…

2008 has been a year of change in Malaysia and people have certainly been using Google to access information about these changes. The fastest rising searched items documented the rise in popularity of local news portals like Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today.

Politics was also a topic of great interest in Malaysia this year, with searches aimed not only at politicians like Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang, but also significant political events such as this year’s general election. Local car brand Perodua Nautica, Olympic badminton medalist Lee Chong Wei and domestic travel destination Terengganu also figured prominently.

The following are the most popular searches in the local news section.

Google News local searches

• ibiden asia
• anwar ibrahim
• datuk seri
• olympic badminton results
• chua soi lek
• malaysian election results
• malaysia budget 2009
• malaysia new cabinet
• permatang pauh election
• gamuda bhd

Check out the Google Zeitgeist page for more.