Michael Jackson,
Winnie the Pooh and rugby star Jonny Wilkinson also featured
in the UK top 10 searches, along with newcomers Paris Hilton
and old favourites The Simpsons and David Beckham.
The honey-loving bear
has been the subject of a drawn-out legal battle over
merchandising rights in 2003.
OJ Simpson's lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, who is the US's most
high-profile celebrity lawyer, was hired in December by the
Slesinger family who is trying to sue Walt Disney.
The most popular
queries on a global scale included Britney, Harry Potter and
the Matrix, with news stories about Iraq proving
unsurprisingly popular too.
When it came to
looking for pictures, the most popular men globally were
Eminem, followed by David Beckham and a fresh face was added
to the list, in the form of Orlando Bloom.
The top three women
remained unchanged from 2002, with Britney leading Jennifer
Lopez and Pamela Anderson in the hunt for online images. Kylie
Minogue was nowhere to be seen in the top 10 however.
Google's list is based
on 55 billion searches carried out by users in the year and is
supposed to give an indication of celebrity, sport and popular
culture trends.
In a similar list published by search engine Yahoo earlier
this week, file-sharing program Kazaa topped was the most
searched-for item amongst its users.
Although Kazaa is
absent from Google's list, the RIAA (Recording Industry
Association of America) was the fifth highest news query
globally.
Throughout the year,
the RIAA has attempted to take legal steps to clamp down on
music piracy and illegal file-swapping.
