Since Bing only debuted at mid-year (and at the D: All Things Digital conference too), BoomTown is willing to cut it some slack. Until the Microsoft search service revealed on its blog last night that Perez Hilton--the irksome gossip blogger--beat out "Transformers" hottie Megan Fox and "Twilight" hottie-er Robert Pattinson for the top celebrity searched using Bing in 2009. Clearly, Bing's algorithm needs some tweaking by real people.

On the spur of the moment yesterday--as Los Angeles was gridlocked by the memorial service for pop legend Michael Jackson--BoomTown decided to pay a quick visit to Harvey Levin, who runs TMZ. Located on Sunset Boulevard--natch!--TMZ is the celebrity news Web site that actually broke the news of Jackson's death, before any other media outlet. And it has pretty much led the coverage as the sad story has unfolded--and keeps doing so.

Depending on your perspective, this is either interesting news or heartening news: Michael Jackson's funeral and memorial were indeed a giant Internet event. But they don't seem to have been as big as Michael Jackson's death, and they weren't as big as Barack Obama's inauguration. So, let's call them the third-biggest Web event of the year. To date.