Yes, it's that time of the year again. No, not Christmas, or the "holidays" or whatever it's still okay to call it these days. Tis the season of the beloved "year end" lists.

We passed around the egg nog and set the OhMyGov team digging into what the search giants were saying and what's dominated the most popular lists on Twitter, Digg, ChaCha, and many other sites. We also looked at what's drawn the most readers here at OhMyGov.com, all in the name of creating the undisputed world heavyweight king of top ten lists for 2009. Our algorithm tried to account for the many related searches (the Obama "birthers" movement, for instance) that don't neatly fall under a single term. Is it perfect? Well, yes, we think so, but that might be the eggnog talking.  

So without further ado, we present:

OhMyGov's Top 10 Gov Searches of 2009

1. Sarah Palin — A year after stirring up the presidential election with her unique brand of... it's hard to say what, exactly... Palin has gone rogue on a nationwide book tour to presumably test the waters for 2012. Love her or hate her, you're searching for her, more than any other government figure during 2009. 

2. Barack Obama  — He is the president, after all. We're supposed to care about what he says and does, whether he was really born in the U.S., etc. 

3. swine flu — You can't put lipstick on this pig. The dangerous flu strain is a huge topic this fall, with the government taking a starring role for its public health efforts.

4. Cash for Clunkers — The only guarantees out there are death, taxes, and that if the government is giving money away, it will be a huge story. Even if you had no prayer of qualifying for the clunker credit, chances are you searched for information about the program at least once. Are we wrong? 

5. health care reform — We searched, but did we find any answers? Probably not clear, concise ones. (If you did, please point us there!) 

6. inauguration — It was the Washington event of the year, no doubt, with enough attention to warrant its own place in the Top 10 list. The only way it could have been a bigger story is if the Salahis had tried to crash it... oh, wait.

7. Ted Kennedy — The lion of the Senate repairs to the great cloak room in the sky.

8. peanut butter recall — Now forgotten like that jar of Smuckers at the back of the fridge, the recall and government response were big news at the time. Concerned parents relied on Google, Yahoo and the rest to get information about the dangerous tainted PB.  

9. Sonia Sotomayor — The nation's first Latino appointee to the Supreme Court was virtually unknown outside legal circles before President Obama nominated her in May. Hence a flurry of search activity to find out more about her rulings, her judicial philosophy, and the proper pronunciation of her last name.

10. Mark Sanford — The South Carolina governor was wrapped up in an (extramarital) love story for the ages! Teary exchanges, clandestine trips to Argentina... it had all the makings of a bad television movie. But we ate it up nevertheless.

Here's hoping 2010 brings more government stories to unite the nation in front of our computers!