Sarah Palin may have ended up on the losing side of the landmark US electoral battle for the White House, but she has finished first on Google's image search list.

In the Google's list of the most popular searches in 2008, the photogenic defeated US vice-presidential candidate, topped the the web search chart.

The glamorous Palin finished number one on Google Image Search in 2008, Google said.

"Beijing Olympics 2008" came in at number two on the Google list of "fastest-rising" searches around the globe this year followed by "Facebook login" and "Tuenti," a Spanish social networking website.

Searches for "Heath Ledger," the Australian actor who died in January, was listed at number four followed by "Obama" as in Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for the White House and now US president-elect.

Apart from providing a global view of searches on the the web this year, Google also released search data for more than 30 countries.

In the United States, "Obama" was number one on the Google "fastest-rising" list followed by "Facebook" "ATT," a US phone company, "iPhone," "YouTube" and "Fox News".

While Republican vice presidential candidate Palin may have come in at number one globally she only finished seventh on the list of fastest-rising searches on Google.com by US users in 2008.

The McCain pick did, however, finish number one on Google Image Search in 2008, Google said.