Kejriwal, Sunny Leone share top spot in Yahoo! India's year list

Sports upstaged Bollywood and Politics, and captured the attention of Indian netizens in 2012.

According to the Year in Review 2012 by Yahoo! India, Olympics Bronze medalist boxer Mary Kom was chosen Yahoo! India’s ‘Person of the Year’. The London Games 2012 saw India’s biggest Olympic medal haul, equaling the collective tally of India's previous seven campaigns in this global event.

Meanwhile, Sunny Leone, Indo-Canadian adult movie star, became the most searched celebrity on the Net for 2012, ahead of Bollywood’s leading ladies, and Arvind Kejriwal, the new poster boy for the crusade against corruption, knocked off mentor Anna Hazare from the position to become Top Newsmaker in India for 2012.

Year in Review offers a glimpse into the social trends, compelling newsmakers and top stories of 2012, based on what Internet users in India looked for. The survey looks at the online behaviour of Indian net users across 15 categories that users read, recommended and shared most on the Yahoo! network in India during 2012.

It is clear while looking at the top trends that scams and controversies, with a large dose of Bollywood gossip, captured the attention of the user in 2012.  So Aishwarya Rai’s post pregnancy weight gain fueled a hefty share of Internet gossip, making her the Celebrity in the News for 2012, ahead of the Khans, Kapoors and Katrina Kaif!

After being chosen as the best non-model on the ramp by Yahoo! users last year, ‘Mr. Dependable’ Virat Kohli became 2012’s Performer of the Year, coming in straight at the top of the list of Cricketers of the Year.

Indian aviation and the dark cloud surrounding India’s airline carriers was one of the Top News Stories of the Year. The Coalgate scam, Apple-Samsung war, fall of the Indian rupee and the much-awaited Facebook IPO also made it to this list.
 
iPhone 5 dominated the list of Top Tech Stories for 2012. Pinterest, crowdfunding and the sale of Instagram were among the other topics tech aficionados could not get enough of.
 
Other themes which dominated the daily habits of online users in India included news on style trends, health & fitness and top travel destinations.