Lifestyle - India;Most googled

Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif is the most searched person online in India, while social networking site Orkut is the most searched keyword in the country, according to Google’s India Zeitgeist – a survey of online search terms.

“Different people find different things to do on the Web, so these lists are a good representation of the unique ways in which users mine the Internet,” said Vinay Goel, Head of Products, Google India.

Following Orkut in the ‘Most Popular Searches’ category were ‘Gmail’ and ‘Yahoo’. The seventh most popular term in the list was ‘Indian railways’ – whose official site was also the most popular government portal in the year.

"Given the popularity of mobiles, we also looked at what was searched for while on the move," Goel said. The country can’t seem to get enough of social networking, it seems, as Orkut was the most searched term in this category too.

In addition, the report also looked at the top 10 fastest rising keywords in India, by comparing 2008’s searches with their popularity in the previous year. Video-sharing site ‘Youtube’ won this title, followed by Orkut and Katrina Kaif.

In the list of most popular Bollywood celebrities, Kaif was followed by Aishwarya Rai and Salman Khan. And Jodhaa Akbar edged out Dasavatharam and Singh Is King as the most searched movie.

In other categories, tennis star Sania Mirza outplayed cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo; while Mahatma Gandhi was the most searched politician, ahead of Raj Thackrey and US Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

The country also seems to be focusing on keeping fit, as ‘how to lose weight’ was the most searched term in the ‘how-to’ category.

‘Goa’ was listed as the most popular holiday destination, and ‘Independence Day’ as the most popular day of the year.