Michael Jackson’s death thrust the singer to the top of yahoo.com Internet searches in 2009, putting an end to Britney Spears’ four-year reign and helping bump the President Barack Obama from the top 10 list.

Although the year was dominated by recession, the most clicks still went to what distracts web surfers. NASCAR, actress Megan Fox, reality star Kim Kardashian, and the film “Twilight” replaced four actresses on last year’s top list.

Until June, when Jackson died of a drug overdose, Obama’s inauguration garnered the most web traffic, said Vera Chan, web trend analyst at Yahoo Inc.