One in three of us Brits could not survive a week on our savings if we lost our job, according to a recent study; indeed, 19% of us have no savings at all. Debt ridden and scared sleepless by the looming spectres of lay offs and interest rate rises, is there any wonder there were millions of us crossing our fingers and hoping for a miracle win on the National Lottery this year?

Yes, taking top spot in Yahoo!'s top searches of 2010: 'lottery', showing that rather than working for the meagre bird in the hand, the Brits are more than happy to gamble on a chance for the two plump turkeys sitting in the bush. 

And why not take a chance? 2010's lottery winnings broke all previous British records. In February, a Gloucestershire couple hooked an unprecedented £56 million, but this was soon eclipsed in May, when Euromillions handed out £84.4m to an anonymous ticket holder. Then, at the end of October, another mystery winner scooped a record £113 million fortune, automatically becoming the 589th richest person in the UK, ahead of veteran rockers Rod Stewart and David Bowie.

Those of us still yet to scoop a big prize were able to feel blessed by our lack of luck this year, as a team of economists studying Britain's lottery-made millionaires discovered that a big win can cause what they dubbed 'positive income shock'. The suddenly rich have higher mortality rates than the rest of us, caused by an increased tendency to 'unhealthy living'. So while we may have cursed the bald facts on our bills and bank statements, hopefully a few of us took a moment in 2010 to be grateful that we don't have the cash to destroy our health.

Most of us didn't experience luck on the lottery this year, so we had to get our money the hard way - working for it. Whether it was a job move to accompany a downsize to a cheaper area, school-leavers unable to get into our over-subscribed universities, university graduates competing for entry level positions, or the newly redundant, there were few who didn't scan the job sites at some point in 2010. On average, four of us chased each available job, with some prized positions garnering thousands of applications.

'Job centre' was accompanied in the charts by other popular related searches - 'How to write a good CV?' was a question in many people's search boxes, along with the search phrases 'Interview technique', 'How to make a good first impression' and 'Negotiating a better salary'. Good luck with the latter in the current financial climate!  

At 7.9%, the UK does not yet have the worst unemployment rate in Europe - that accolade belongs to Latvia, which has 20% of its workforce unemployed. At the current time, approximately 1.5 million Brits are claiming jobseekers' allowance; however experts have warned that once government austerity measures kick in, we could see many more join the dole queue. Reportedly, 1.6 million more jobs in the public sector are at risk of disappearing over the next five years, so we can expect to see 'job centre' staying in our top ten searches for the foreseeable future.

'So what's new about us Brits being interested in the weather?' you may be thinking, but the weather became a major preoccupation for much of the world during this past year. Experts have described 2010 as an 'exceptional' year for weather disasters, blaming 'a clear pattern of global warming'.

In July we witnessed catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, following unusually intense monsoon rains which at one point left a fifth of the country underwater. The floods affected a total of 20 million people, destroying billions of pounds worth of crops and infrastructure, and driving millions of people from their homes. At the same time, in Russia, hundreds of wildfires broke out during the hottest summer ever recorded there, with sweltering temperatures and poisonous smog doubling the usual mortality rate in Moscow.

Back at home, we had our coldest start to the year in 30 years and the worst snowfall in 18 years. The UK ground to a halt as ice brought down trees and power lines. One in five of us were forced to stay at home by the severe weather, costing the economy an estimated £1.2bn in lost working hours.

In May, scientists revealed a study which seemed to show our British summers arriving earlier every year, consistent with the general theory of global warming. According to their research into the blooming times of native plants, our summers now begin 18 days sooner than those of the 1950s. Shame they couldn't programme that for 2010, the change to British Summer Time in March brought with it more flurries of snow.

In Big Brother's last year on British screens, no one could say that the producers didn't try their hardest to keep the antics of housemates the 'water cooler' topic of choice; three complete series rounded off a over a decade of privacy-lite, celebrity-generating amusement. Even so, the show had to relinquish 2009's top spot in the searches chart, and make do with fourth place this time.

Celebrity Big Brother 2010 helped brighten the dull days of January. In a house featuring a tasteful 'hell' theme, memorable moments included: Alex Reid's spray tanning session; the secret fake award task, which ended in drama when Stephanie Beacham broke Ivana Trump's award, and a Big Brother first, when presenter Davina McCall entered the house disguised as a chicken. Alex was to emerge the eventual winner, though the newly installed 'Tree of Temptation' must receive an honourable mention.

In June, it was the turn of the ordinary mortals to enter the house for the eleventh and final series of the regular show. Mario won his place by successfully eluding identification as Big Brother's mole, despite being forced to enter the house wearing a mole suit, and carrying a sign proclaiming, 'I am a mole'. The housemates had to be briefly evacuated after a freak rainstorm caused leaks in the bedroom and living room.

Ultimate Big Brother gave the nation a chance to decide on the 'Ultimate Housemate'. Housemates included Josie, who immediately re-entered the house after winning the regular series, Ulrika Jonsson, 'Nasty' Nick Bateman, and other luminaries chosen from the 186 Big Brother housemates and 68 celebrity housemates that we'd watched over the years. The grand finale featured an emotional tribute to late housemate Jade Goody, before former trolley-dolly Brian Dowling swanned off with the coveted crown.

Was this the year that Cheryl Cole ascended to national treasure status? Up from number nine in last year's top searches chart, this was a rollercoaster year for the star.

The start of 2010 saw 'our Cheryl' in the public eye for all the wrong reasons. A series of lurid kiss-and-tell tabloid stories revealed that her husband, footballer Ashley Cole, had cheated on the star, and led to her announcement of their separation. The decree nisi ending the couple's four-year marriage was granted in September.

Fuelled by public sympathy, Cheryl's career as a performer and judge on 'The X Factor' has gone from strength to strength this year. During the summer, her support act stint on the Black Eyed Peas' European tour ended with her becoming 'the main event'. Rumours of a burgeoning relationship with American celebrity dancer Derek Hough kept us all searching for the latest gossip.

Her upward trajectory halted dramatically in July, when she collapsed while filming for 'The X Factor'. Diagnosed with malaria, she was forced to miss auditions for the show, as well as bootcamp.

'Promise This', the lead single from her new album, became her second solo number one hit in the UK in October. Dubbed 'the nation's sweetheart, a recession-era People's Princess' by the Daily Mail, Ms Tweedy has her ambitions set beyond these shores. Reports suggest she's due to appear alongside Simon Cowell on the judging panel of the wildly successful American version of 'The X Factor' - a move which could see her propelled into stellar circles across the Atlantic.

So this year, belts were pulled tight. Restaurants and pubs shut up shop as we stopped treating ourselves to meals out and 'swift drinks' after work, and trudged home instead.

Luckily for us, at home we had over 480 TV channels waiting for us. Unluckily for ITV, most people were watching the other 479: the channel experienced the lowest viewing figures in its entire history one day during the summer, when fewer than one in ten people watched the channel, and no more than 4 million people watched a single programme.

So what did we watch? Murder and romantic intrigues in the ever-popular world of the soaps, mainly. 16.6m fans discovered just who killed Archie Mitchell in a live episode of Eastenders that marked the 25th anniversary of the programme. The grand old lady of soapland, Coronation Street, kept churning out the must-see storylines, although 'siege week' had to be delayed after the shootings in Cumbria. 'Corrie' hits the big 5-0 in December 2010, having already become the longest running soap opera of all time: an event marked with suitable mayhem on the street.

2010 saw the inauguration of the eleventh Doctor Who, as David Tennant packed up his pinstripes, to be reborn as the superbly sculpted Matt Smith. Too young? Too pretty? Fans were divided, though watching the show remained the thinking person's excuse of choice for staying in on a Saturday night.

This year's general election was enlivened by the first televised leaders' debates in British history. The surprise package was Nick Clegg, whose impressive on-air sprightliness contrasted with an entrenched Brown and overconfident Cameron, and arguably changed the course of the election; what looked likely to be a fairly clear Conservative majority, dissolved into the current Lib-Con coalition.

We also said goodbye to a few screen stalwarts this year: GMTV made way for Daybreak, The Bill fell foul of 'changing tastes', and the ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ finally ran out after 37 years. Probably a good job, otherwise we'd have been terrified at the sight of Cleggy's four-foot mug on our new widescreen HDTV, bought in honour of the next most popular search of the year…

The 19th Fifa World Cup in South Africa. Seemed like we'd been waiting for it forever.

Only England had qualified from the home nations, and so carried the entire weight of British expectation (barring supporters of Anyone But England) on their Premier League-honed shoulders. At the start of the year, Capello was being praised to the skies, and beneath the modest mutterings about the strength of other teams competing, there lay a gem of hope that perhaps 2010 might be England's time to shine. Excitement grew daily, with increasing numbers gathering online to discuss team selections and tactics.

Could anyone have predicted what was to follow? Disputes and injuries within the England camp shook the team, with two captains dropping in quick succession: John Terry to controversy, and Rio Ferdinand to injury. The first rumblings of discontent over Capello's disciplinarian style were heard.

The South Africans' joyful participation and exuberance with the vuvuzelas made for a unique atmosphere, but for England the tournament was one to forget. Robert Green's fumble to gift the USA an equaliser set the tone. The great hope Rooney was lacklustre and two strides off the pace. Back home in the UK, stunned by dreary turn-outs, we all searched for reasons why the players, granted a dream opportunity, looked like they wanted to be anywhere but at the World Cup.

After scraping through to the second round to face Germany, England were given a hard lesson in attacking football, losing 4-1. Frank Lampard's disallowed goal had plenty of us searching for information on goal-line technology, but the overall outcome was generally regarded as deserved.

So the only British men to reach a World Cup final since 1966 were referee Howard Webb and his assistants. Spain's Red Furies survived a barrage of horrific Dutch tackling to become both the reigning World and European champions.

The search 'train times' has chugged its way up the top searches chart to a secure number eight, from a marginal tenth position last year.

The regular weekend disruption of planned engineering works could have sparked this rise, with each bringing cancellations and delays, along with the dreaded bus replacement services. Deciphering this past year's bizarre route alterations definitely required some advanced research online, if you didn't want to end up stuck in Ingatestone on a cold December evening. Not that there's anything wrong with Ingatestone you understand...

Could the rise of interest in train travel also be another result of the recession? Iain Duncan Smith exhorted the unemployed onto the buses to find work, but perhaps the workless in towns of high unemployment were finding it necessary to travel further for interviews, and to commute for longer distances should they be able to find a position. In an atmosphere where many of us were constantly checking over our shoulders to try and dodge the redundancy axe, it's probable that train timetables were triple-checked online to make very sure we were at meetings on time.

Some families saved money in 2010 by selling the expensive run-arounds and getting to grips with the vagaries of public transport again. Even the Queen has been subject to this: swapping the royal train for the public train to Portsmouth on a recent visit to the decommissioned Ark Royal aircraft carrier. A brave inspector even asked for her ticket!

2010 has been yet another very public year in the life of Katie Price a.k.a. Jordan. But even after all the column inches and web site pages devoted to this real-life drama queen, she's sunk from eighth to ninth in our search top ten. Despite a reputed £40million fortune that ensures she could choose not to work another day in her life, the feeling is that the former model won't be pleased to see her public appeal waning - especially not with rival Cheryl Cole climbing the table.

In July of this year, she mounted a direct attack on the pop charts, releasing the single 'Free To Love Again'. Unfortunately, this bid to diversify into pop stardom failed spectacularly - the song didn't even reach the UK top 40.

The main point of interest for online searchers has been Price's on-off relationship with cage-fighter and Celebrity Big Brother winner, Alex Reid. To cap a long-running saga of will-they-won't-they, on 2 February 2010, they married in a quickie ceremony in a Las Vegas chapel. In a move that surprised regular observers, no magazine photographers were allowed at the wedding, although later it was revealed that a film crew were present to record the event exclusively for the reality show 'What Katie Did Next'. The perma-tanned couple have rarely been out of the tabloids since, with a seemingly endless round of rumoured splits and diva strops.

Times of recession fill lives with uncertainty, and this year has been no different. 'Will I still have a job next year? What if my business fails? Will my relationship crumble under the stress?'

In the midst of turmoil, many more of us were searching for a sense of meaning in 2010,  reassurance that life has a benign plan for us, that somehow everything is happening for a reason, even if that reason is not entirely clear on the day you lose your job, or the bank repossesses your family home.

Horoscopes comfort us with assurances that our fates have us firmly in hand and, whatever our current troubles, that there is a path forward. Whether we choose to consult our Sun horoscope, our Chinese horoscope, our Vedic horoscope, a numerologist, the Tarot, the crystal ball, or any of the other divination tools we can now access online, all are based on the premise that life is not simply a series of accidental meanderings, and all prosper by giving us the gift of hope.

You may believe in astrology and divination or not, but most of us probably have a glance at our day's horoscope every now and again, especially if we're wondering if that special someone will call... and the number of people who pay attention to predictions dramatically increased this year, with the publication of many books and articles on 21st December 2012. That's the date marking the end of the Mayan 'Long Count' calendar, and - for some doomsayers - the date of the apocalypse.

Cheerful times we're living in!