It should surprise no one that the iPhone (News - Alert) is one of the most popular devices in the world. Even the apps that are made for it are some of the top apps around the globe. Companies line up in order to be featured by Apple's (News - Alert) crowning glory and when they finally are featured they are rewarded with a loyal audience. Of course, when a device is as popular as the iPhone it makes the news even when that news is less than positive. That's why the story about an iPhone exploding in mid-air has helped the device take the number one spot in the Yahoo search engines for 2011.

Yahoo says that in 2011, the iPhone was able to beat out major news stories like Libya's dictator falling, Rick Perry's debate gaffe and Demi and Ashton breaking up.  The device proved to be more searched for than Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez who all finished in the top five of the search terms. Casey Anthony, the woman who was acquitted of murdering her young child took the second spot in the searches this year.

Web trend analyst Vera Chan said that this is the first time since 2002 that Yahoo has had a gadget as the number one search term. That year, the new gaming system, the Playstation 2 was the top search term. Chan added that the ability of the iPhone to do so many things has lead to political movements utilizing and mentioning the device, driving up the times people searched for it. 

Among the non-gadget news, women dominated the top 10 Yahoo search list. Lindsey Lohan, who had quite a few run-ins with the law, took the sixth spot in the list. Osama Bin Laden was among the top searched terms after he was killed by U.S. Forces earlier this year. Rumors had been circulating around the iPhone's newest iteration, the iPhone 4S, for months before it was finally announced. 

The rumors and unsubstantiated claims that surrounded the new phone were enough to drive up interest. One person who has dominated the top 10 for the last few years, Britney Spears missed making the top searches this year.