Federer loses number-one ranking… to Obama

More people in Switzerland googled Barack Obama in 2008 than anybody else, including the country's tennis hero, Roger Federer, the search engine said.

Madonna, who in August played her first concert in Switzerland, the country’s largest ever, rounded out the top three searched-for people.

According to the Google Zeitgeist, a report on internet trends based on the company’s massive search engine market share, Swiss people were also keen to find videos on YouTube, look up weather forecasts and check train schedules.

The most sought-after locations were Bern, Zurich and Basel.

And while Alaska governor Sarah Palin failed in her bid to become vice-president of the United States, the rate at which her name was queried grew faster during 2008 than that of Barack Obama, who will become president in January.

Google gets its information from millions of anonymous daily searches. It opened its European headquarters in Zurich this year.