Live Search’s ‘Top 100 Searches for 2006′ reveals Kate Middleton is most popular Royal

They may be the most famous family in Britain, but the 2006 Live Search round up reveals that Brits are more fascinated by royal ‘ladies in waiting’ Kate Middleton and Chelsea Davy than by the Windsors themselves.

Prince William’s girlfriend of two years – Kate Middleton scored more hits than any of the blood royals, to become this year’s most searched for Royal on the web, despite news of an engagement yet to be announced. The Berkshire beauty was closely followed in the Live Search list by Prince Harry’s 21-year old Zimbabwean girlfriend, Chelsea Davy, who has spent 2006 jet-setting between South Africa and Britain to be beside her man. Flush from a series of sporting successes, and enjoying her new title of BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Royal Zara Phillips completed the top trio of luscious lovelies.

Even Prince William only made it to number four in the most searched for Royals, proving only marginally more popular than his brother and father, who made it to eight and ninth place respectively, indicating that the glamorous girlfriends hold far more fascination for the UK than their male partners.

Princess Jordan proves she’s here to stay

The 2006 list also reveals a fascinating insight into the shelf life of our favourite celebrities. Glamour girl Katie Price, aka Jordan, shows she has long-term appeal by being one of only ten personalities to make it into Live Search’s top 100 list for the last five years running, something which bonafide A-listers like Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Kate Moss and Tom Cruise have failed to do.

Joining Jordan in the list of celebrities to stand the test of time is David Beckham (whose off-pitch antics and shaky on-pitch performances don’t appear to have dented his appeal), rival American popstrels Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, Aussie pop Princess Kylie Minogue and Pirates of the Caribbean star Orlando Bloom.

Behind every Great Man is a great woman…

Women are the big winners of 2006, with the top 100 Live Search list entirely dominated by female celebrities. 45 of the top 100 entries on the list were women, including Angelina Jolie (9), Charlotte Church (16), Kate Moss (39), Katie Holmes (45), Mischa Barton (59), Coleen McCloughlin (75) and Chantelle Houghton (84) – none of whose famous other halves even made an appearance!

In fact, only seven men made it on to the list, including Richard Hammond (43), Steve Irwin (49) , Christiano Ronaldo (78) and Borat (87).

World Cup Scores high

World Cup Fever took a grip on the nation this summer and took the no 14 spot ahead of Wimbledon (34) and cricket (70). The reds seem to be the winners this year with Liverpool FC (22), Arsenal (27) and Manchester United (51) all making the list. Champions Chelsea, however, don’t even rank in the top 100, indicating Mourinho‘s dream team could be on its way down?

David Graham, UK Search business manager, commented: ‘The Live Search end of year round up is a really interesting indication of popular culture and it’s fascinating to see how the next generation of female Royals has captured the nation’s imagination. The obsession with female celebrities is very revealing with searches about everything from their latest body hang ups to their red carpet nightmares. Perhaps 2007 will be the year that men get their turn.

The ‘Top searches of 2006′ was compiled using Live Search which is used by five million people in the UK, providing an instant barometer of trends across the nation with thousands of search terms entered every day, from people to events, news stories to TV shows and anything else that caught Britain’s imagination throughout the year.