MANILA, Philippines - Most Filipinos use the Internet to stay on top of the news, reflecting their desire for more details on specific stories and newsmakers, data from Yahoo! showed.

Using search data from January to July 2010, Yahoo! said most Internet-using Filipinos surfed the net for information about current events in and out of the country, making news the top searched category during the 7-month period.

"Yahoo is a mirror of Filipino society and the insights we gather from our search data illuminate the passions and interests of the Filipino people," Jack Madrid, Yahoo! Philippines country manager, said in a statement.

The company added, "These top searches represent what matters most to Filipinos and offer insights that have proven to be useful to advertisers."

Entertainment searches came in second, with Yahoo! considering the Philippines as a "celebrity-driven" country.

This was followed by searches about games -- from new releases to tips and cheat codes.

"Gaming proved to be another popular trend in the first half of 2010," Yahoo! noted.

During the summer months, Yahoo! said many Filipinos also turned to the Internet to search for hotels and vacation spots, making travel the fourth most searched category in the country.

Meanwhile, searches on job opportunities came in fifth place.

"Many use the web to research job opportunities within the country and abroad. Searches also reflect growth in the e-commerce industry," Yahoo! said.

Most searched topics

Google, another search engine, listed down the fastest rising topics in the previous week.

On top of the list is the result of this year's nursing board examinations, where only 37,679 out of the 91,008 graduates passed.

Rayan Oliva of Ateneo de Naga University topped the grueling exams last July with a grade of 86.80%.

Other popular searches last week include sports and information on dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease.

Below is the full list of the fastest rising topics from August 27 to September 2, as provided by Google Philippines:

1. Nursing board exam
2. Fonthip watcharatrakul
3. UFC 118
4. PBA draft 2010
5. elgoog
6. boxing
7. IP Man
8. Pagasa weather forecast
9. Tweeter
10. Symptoms of dengue