Runescape beats out Naruto, Lindsey Lohan in Yahoo! search results

What's more popular than Lindsey Lohan or the hit anime Naruto? More fun than American Idol or Angelina Jolie, and almost as popular to search on as Barack Obama? If you'd guess the web-based fantasy MMO Runescape we'd call you prescient ... or assume that you'd already taken a look at the Yahoo! Buzz year in review. This look back at the year 2008 in searches ranks Runescape as a bigger deal than pop princesses, reality TV shows, and that ubiqitous anime/manga/game icon.

Runescape, of course, is a ridiculously popular free-to-play MMO based entirely on Java and playable via web browser. It's a sign of the times to see this kind of title on Yahoo's list, and we're happy to see the genre in such a prominent place. If you're not familiar with the game you might want to take a look at the coverage we had back during E3, when the title went to a new higher-resolution state of play. Congrats to Runescape and Jagex on this accomplishment!

Thanks, Brian.
Update: Corrected the erroneous assertion that Runescape is Flash-based. It is not.