Britney Spears
 
Love her or hate her, Britney Spears fascinated people in 2007 with the disgraced pop princess heading a list of the top 10 searches on Yahoo! again.

Spears, who turned 26 on Sunday, continued to draw attention as she shaved her head, attacked a photographer's car with an umbrella, went to rehab, fought with ex-husband Kevin Federline over the custody¹ of their two sons, and released her first album in four years.

"The searches would spike² every time she was back in the news," Vera Chan, senior editor at Yahoo! said.

Spears has topped the annual Yahoo! list for six of the past seven years, only losing out once -- in 2004 -- to her friend and fellow party girl Paris Hilton.

Hilton, however, was slipping in the search list until May when she was sentenced to 45 days in jail after violating her probation³ on a previous traffic offense⁴.

She ended up at No. 3 on the list from No. 5 last year.

Actress Lindsay Lohan, who also spent 84 minutes in jail for a drunken driving and cocaine-possession, came sixth in the search list, up from No. 10 last year.

The No. 2 search, unchanged from last year, was for WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment, with a lot of interest in the death of professional wrestler⁵ Chris Benoit who killed his wife and son then hanged himself.

Naruto, the Japanese manga series, came fourth in the list.

Online gaming took two slots in the list for the first time with the free  multi-player game RuneScape at No. 7 and Fantasy Football at No. 8.

But it wasn't only falling celebrities⁶ who won attention.

Singer Beyonce Knowles came fifth in the list, up from No 7. last year, as she continued to build her business empire and singer Fergie came in at No. 9.

Jessica Alba arrived on the list at No. 10, helped by being named magazine FHM's "2007's Sexiest Woman in the World."

Off the list? Jessica Simpson dropped off, as did Pamela Anderson, Shakira and hip⁷ hop's Chris Brown. American Idol⁸ was no longer a top search which Chan attributed to the show concentrating more on celebrities than wannabe stars. 

你喜欢她也好，讨厌她也罢，不管怎样，“小甜甜”布兰妮都在过去一年中吸引了众人的眼球，这位颜面尽失的昔日流行天后今年再次夺得雅虎“十大热门搜索榜”冠军。

布兰妮上周日刚满26岁。这一年来，她因剃光头、用伞砸摄影记者的车、几次进出戒疗所、与前夫凯文•费德林争夺两个儿子的监护权以及四年来首发新专辑继续吸引着人们的注意。

雅虎的高级编辑Vera Chan说：“只要她一上新闻，搜索量就会猛增。”

在过去七年中，“小甜甜”六次夺得雅虎年度搜索榜冠军，仅在2004年让位于她的好友、派对女郎帕丽斯•希尔顿。

希尔顿的搜索量在今年5月之前一直下滑，之后她因在酒后驾车案缓刑期内违规驾驶而被判处45天的监禁，使其搜索量又有所回升。

今年，希尔顿从去年的第五位上升到了第三位。

影星林赛•洛翰今年因酒后驾车和携带咖啡因入狱84分钟，她在搜索榜上的排名从去年的第十位上升到了第六位。

排在热门搜索榜第二位的仍是去年的美国职业摔跤（WWE），职业摔跤手克里斯•贝诺伊特的死吸引了众多关注。他杀死了自己的妻子和儿子，然后上吊自杀。

日本动画片《火隐忍者》名列第四。

网络游戏今年首次跻身雅虎十大热门搜索榜，免费联众游戏“江湖”和“梦幻足球”分别名列第七位和第八位。

但并不只是沉沦的明星才会受到关注。

仍忙于打造自己商业“帝国”的歌手碧昂丝•诺里斯从去年搜索榜的第七名上升至第五名，歌手菲吉位居第九。

杰西卡•奥尔巴位居搜索榜第十位，这主要得归功于她被FHM杂志评为“2007年全球最性感女人”。

今年落榜的明星包括杰西卡•辛普森、帕梅拉•安德森、夏奇拉和嘻哈大师克里斯•布朗。“美国偶像”也不再是热门搜索，据Vera Chan分析，这主要是因为这个选秀节目现在更侧重于名人，而并非想成名的人。

Vocabulary:

multi-player game:联众游戏

wannable star:想成名的人