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MANILA, Philippines - What do boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, actress Maricar Reyes and social network Facebook have in common?

According to Google's annual Zeitgeist report, they are among the fastest rising Google searches in the Philippines for 2009 representing what was top of mind for Filipinos this year.

Facebook caught the attention of many Filipinos online this year, making it the fastest rising search term in the Philippines for 2009. Microblogging site Twitter wasn't far behind, being the 8th fastest rising search term for the year.

A sex scandal involving embattled celebrity surgeon Hayden Kho and actress Maricar Reyes was just as hot online as it was on television, according to Google Zeitgeist. Maricar Reyes placed second in the fastest rising search terms in Google while Kho placed seventh.

Other search terms that had the highest level of search queries this year are: Korean star Kim Bum (3), Zest Air (4) Love Story lyrics (5), Lady Gaga (6), Michael Jackson (9) and Pacquiao vs Hatton (10).

The Google Zeitgeist report said social network Friendster still remained the most popular search for the year followed by video-sharing website YouTube while Facebook placed third.

Filipinos also used Google to track some of the biggest news stories of the year including the H1N1 virus, the Ted Failon case, Typhoons Ketsana and Parma and US Marine Daniel Smith.

Google Insights for Search, a publicly available tool at www.google.com.ph/insights/search, also showed that searches for Pacquiao's fight versus Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto still eclipsed searches for the Maguindanao massacre.

Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, Liberal Party candidate for president in next year's national elections, was the hottest politician in online searches this year. He was followed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Sen. Francis Escudero, former senator Ralph Recto and Sen. Manuel Roxas.

Nacionalista Party bet Sen. Manny Villar placed sixth on the most searched election candidates on Google, followed by former defense chief Gilbert Teodoro, former president Joseph Estrada, Wowowee host Willie Revillame and President Arroyo.