Our most-searched person of 2012? Hint: He’s kind of a big deal

The big winner for 2012 on gettyimages.com was U.S. President Barack Obama — who not only was re-elected for a second term, but also was the most-searched person by our customers.

“Name-of-person” searches are important to people looking for compelling editorial imagery, so we do a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure that customers always get strong, relevant results.

Who else topped the list?

Her short lived romance with Harry Styles may have ended, but Taylor Swift can console herself with the fact that she also became one of the highest “name-of-person” searches on Getty Images by the end of 2012.

Through our Top Search logs, we watched her soar in popularity from just over 1,500 customer searches in January to a peak of almost 16,000 searches by September.

Not bad!

LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 09: Musician Taylor Swift poses for a portrait during the 39th Annual People’s Choice Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on January 9, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for PCA)

Editor’s note: Amy Kennelly is a Search Editor for Getty Images, and works with our Ecommerce Platform team in Dublin.

Barack Obamabehind the scenessearchTaylor Swift