Cow grabs all the attention as Yahoo's 'Personality of the Year'

BANGALORE, INDIA: The humble ‘Cow’ beats all other high-profile contenders to emerge as ‘Personality of the Year’, said search engine, Yahoo, in its 2015 Year in Review (YIR) for India.

It started with the Maharashtra government announcing a ban on sale of beef in the state – a move, which led to massive debates online and offline, spiraling into the ‘beef controversy’. Fuelled further by the mob lynching at Dadri, the ‘cow’ became the icon of discussions on ‘intolerance’, sparking the ‘award wapsi’ campaign, and even stalling the Parliament proceedings at one point, said Yahoo.

Yahoo compiles the YIR with the year’s top trends, happenings and events based on users’ daily search habits and an editorial selection of what they read, recommended and shared most on Yahoo.

Politics remained an all-consuming passion through the year in 2015. Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued his run from 2014 and remained one of the Top Newsmakers this year too, along with Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal.

The rise of ISIS, 2015 World Cup, APJ Abdul Kalam’s demise, the Sheena Bora Murder investigation and the Vyapam Scandal all made headlines in 2015 and featured on the list of Most Searched News / Events in 2015.

Yahoo also Apple dominated technology news and searches this year, with the iPhone 6 taking the top spot in the list of Most-Searched Gadgets.