Malaysiakini.com, Malaysia’s independent news portal is the most searched website in Google for the year 2008 by internet users in Malaysia, a survey found out.

The spike in traffic across the year saw Malaysiakini displacing other popular search including Facebook, TV3, Rapidshare and Malaysia Today.

During the country’s general election in March 2008, the portal become one of the most highly hit websites with more than 1 million visitors flocking the website during the night for latest results.

As the mainstream media was slow in publishing the election result, Malaysiakini became the main source of updates. The site eventually crashed down, and the webmasters had to set up mirror sites as alternative access to visitors.

In terms of search for individuals, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim became the most popular search, followed by American president-elect Barrack Obama, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang and Tun Dr Mahathir.