The past year was full of scene-stealing animals, led by a stingray. The "stingray photobomb" depicts vacationing college students caught unawares by the sea creature (which also appears to be smiling). The photo of Kendall Harlan, Natalie Zaysoff and Sarah Bourland (and the stingray) quickly went viral after being posted on Reddit, even though the original image is 5 years old. In the months since the photo was posted, Harlan says the women have received attention from all over the world. "The oddest request came from a man asking for a high-resolution photo so he could frame it and give it to his wife as a Christmas gift," she says. "He wants to surprise her with the photo printed on a large canvas."
The presidential election was one of the biggest news stories of the year. More » Top news: Election 2012

Here are the top 10 obsessions that, as ranked by their search volume and percentage spike compared with 2011 on Yahoo!. More » The year's top obsessions

One daredevil captivated the globe. More » Space: A record jump

A purple-hued squirrel was found in a Pennsylvania backyard and folks were flummoxed as to how it got its unusual colori … More » Animals: Purple squirrel

Since 2001, Yahoo! has dipped into billions of searches to uncover our … More » Decade of top searches

Inspiring and astounding moments from around the world. More » Video: Astounding moments

Lindsay Lohan, Octomom, and Hulk Hogan are just a few of the celebs who stuffed us full of their nonsense this year. More » Celebrity turkeys of 2012

From Disneyland to Dollywood, Yahoo! searches for travel spots are all over the map. More » Travel: Top tourism

