(26 May 2010 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Research, done by mBit Infotech, a pioneer in Value Added Services (Vas) has revealed that Akon is the most searched and downloaded popular icon/personality in the mobile search and download space.

In the Bollywood category, Katrina’s mobile popularity is way ahead of Shahrukh’s, as revealed by the research.

The research is based on the searches performed by over 1,20,000 users of mBit in the first quarter of 2010 (Jan - April). The results showed that 'SEX' is still the-most-popular-searched Keyword, out of 6730 unique keywords, which accounts for 30 per cent of the total searches performed including words porn, porno, naked etc.

Music is the second most searched for keyword accounting to the 19 per cent of the total searches. Mostly international music icons like Akon, Linkin Park, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Rihanna and Michael Jackson top the list in this category. Also, sports specially cricket along with movies and videos are the third most searched for category which is 15 per cent of the total searches.

Surprisingly, searches with keywords for Bollywood and Hollywood icons were way below accounting to only five per cent of the total searches according to the mBit research.

mBit Infotech CEO Raghavendra Agarwala says,"It is amazing to see that out of this total five per cent, Katrina Kaif is ruling the charts with a major pie, presumably implying that Katrina’s popularity is mounting for both national and international audiences. This has placed Katrina on the number one spot followed by Angelina Jolie, Kareena kapoor, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Bipasha Basu, Aishwarya Rai, Monica Bellucci and Amir Khan by a considerable amount. Also, besides the 'A' searches which are highly searched for on mobile phones as well, Music is something that the users are actually looking at."

Apart from the above, news related topics along with some general keywords takes the rest of the percentage slot.