Six of the 10 fastest-growing search queries entered by Irish users of the internet search engine Google during this year related to television shows such as Love Island or sporting events such as the Ryder Cup.

The 2006 World Cup came in first overall.

According to Google's End of Year 2006 Zeitgeist list, many Irish internet users also wanted to find out more about Australian wildlife presenter Steve Irwin, who died earlier this year from a stingray attack.

His name was the fourth fastest growing search term used this year.

In second place was the Love Island reality television show. This was followed by the US drama series Prison Break and Steve Irwin, with the Ryder Cup in fifth position.

Another US drama series, Lost, appears in sixth place and Borat - the comedy creation of writer Sacha Baron Cohen - appears in seventh place on the list.

The Electric Picnic music festival was the eighth-fastest growing search term entered by Irish users of Google in 2006, followed by the Euromillions lottery draw and Munster rugby, in 10th position.

The list was compiled by examining millions of search queries by Irish-based internet users between March and November of this year to establish which were growing fastest in popularity.

Several of the same search terms also appear on the British version of the list for this year. However, in first place on the British list is the word "video", followed by the World Cup in second place and Steve Irwin in third.

Notable absentees from the Irish list which appear on the British version include Big Brother and "weather".

Google also published yesterday a list of the top 10 "hottest" tickets searched for by Google users from Ireland this year.

These were: Electric Picnic, Radiohead, Heineken Cup, Ryder Cup, The Killers, Oxegen 2006, "Aussie Rules", Metallica, Bernard Dunne and Bell X1.