Britney Spears has earned the title of the most-searched-for person for the third time in four years, thanks to her headline grabbing antics.

The tally compiled by the website America Online places twin actresses Mary Kate and Ashley Oslen second, beating American television personalities Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa who came third.

The top three "mother" searches were Julia Roberts, Shar Jackson - former girlfriend of Spears' husband Kevin Federline - and Liv Tyler, who gave birth to a baby boy last week.

Musician Usher came on top in the most-searched-for under the male category with Kobe Bryant coming first in the most-searched-for athlete.

The survey processes as many as 700 million search queries per month.