Apple (APPL) iPhone 5 is Bing most-searched news story for 2012

Poor Microsoft. People who use your search engine seem especially interested in ... Apple.

Bing published its most-searched news stories for 2012, and topping the list -- ahead of the presidential election, Superstorm Sandy and the London Olympics -- was the iPhone 5, the newest version of Apple's iconic smartphone.

In case we need it, the ranking is further evidence of the feverish speculation that accompanies major Apple product launches. Released in October, the iPhone 5 was the subject of countless rumors and news reports all year about its launch date, features and 4G capability.

But still -- did people on Bing really care more about the iPhone 5 than the election?

"Tim Cook might want to send a thank you card to Steve Ballmer this morning," wrote Taylor Soper on GeekWire.

At least the presidential election beat out Honey Boo Boo. Other tech news stories on Bing's list included the launch of Amazon's newest tablet, the Kindle Fire HD, and Facebook's public stock offering in May. That's a big change from 2011, when no tech stories made Bing's most-searched list.

The complete list of Bing's top news stories:

1. iPhone 5

2. 2012 elections

3. 2012 Olympics

4. Hurricane Sandy

5. "Honey Boo Boo" reality show

6. "Gangnam Style" dance

7. KONY 2012

8. Academy Awards

9. Kindle Fire HD

10. Facebook IPO

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian topped Bing's most-searched person rankings for the year, dethroning 2011 champ Justin Bieber. President Obama was 46th, while his GOP rival Mitt Romney was 43rd.

Apple also dominated Bing's list of the year's most-searched consumer electronics, taking 5 of the 10 spots. Other popular products were the Samsung Galaxy S III phone, the Kindle and Sony's PlayStation 3 gaming console.

Facebook topped Bing's rankings of most-searched social media, followed by Twitter and, perhaps surprisingly, MySpace.

Fortunately for Microsoft, the company wasn't shut out of its own search results. On the consumer-electronics list were the Xbox and Windows 8.

With a market share of 16%, Bing is the second-most popular search engine in the U.S. behind Google (almost 67%), according to comScore.