http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2012/11/26/year-end.aspx

It's not even December yet as I post this and lots of important events will still happen, but Bing has already taken the search engine trends for 2012 as a great way to define this once-new now old year.

Rank 2012 2011
1 Kim Kardashian Justin Bieber
2 Justin Bieber Kim Kardashian
3 Miley Cyrus Jennifer Aniston
4 Rihanna Lindsay Lohan
5 Lindsay Lohan Jennifer Lopez
6 Katy Perry Britney Spears
7 Selena Gomez Katy Perry
8 Jennifer Aniston Megan Fox
9 Nicki Minaj Lady Gaga
10 Taylor Swift Miley Cyrus

I'd say 2012 is the year that Britney Spears is clearly out as a celebrity, no longer being preminent like she's been since 1999, with Jennifer Lopez falling in a similar matter. It bugs me that I'm younger than most of the top celebrities on this list, and is the first time I can say that I feel old! Miley Cyrus is a big surprise, being the year in which her image has matured from Hannah Montana teen idol to major star. Notice that except for Justin Beiber, celebrities tend to be female-driven (Men seem to gravitate more towards sports heroes, while women prefer the Hollywood culture it seems). Interestingly, Obama ranked 46th as opposed to Romney who ranked 43rd, despite Obama winning the election.

In terms of musicians, not too much different from the past few years, though its sad to see Whitney Houston go.

Rank
Musicians

1
Justin Bieber

2
Whitney Houston

3
Katy Perry

4
Selena Gomez

5
Rihanna

6
Nicki Minaj

7
Taylor Swift

8
Beyoncé

9
Chris Brown

10
Jennifer Lopez

In terms of news stories, the top result is basically a continuation since 2007, 2 & 3 are quadannual events, 8 is an annual event, 9 & 10 are evolutions of trends from the past several years, with Sandy being the clear natural disaster of the year. That said, the Honey Boo Boo reality show and Gangham Style Dance are sort of the "that's so 2012" coming in the future.

Rank
News Stories

1
iPhone 5

2
2012 Elections

3
2012 Olympics

4
Hurricane Sandy

5
Honey Boo Boo Reality Show

6
Gangnam Style Dance

7
KONY 2012

8
Academy Awards

9
Kindle Fire HD

10
Facebook IPO

There are many others to check out, but this is a nice "time capsule" worth referencing when examining trends in the future.

I'm kind of surprised Megan Fox is still so popular. I think of her as being so 3 years ago.