Joe Wurzelbacher, or as Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain dubbed him during Wednesday's presidential debate, 'Joe The Pumber', laughs while chatting with the press outside of his home in Holland, Ohio, Thursday Oct. 16, 2008.

Google's search engine was clogged with requests Thursday for information about "Joe the plumber," an obscure handyman from Ohio flushed into the limelight during the latest US presidential debate.

Searches for "Joe the plumber" ranked number seven early Thursday on Google's list of "Hot Trends," the most sought after information on the Internet, trailing such items as "Halloween candy" and "free ecards."

"Who is 'Joe the plumber'" was number one on the list of "hot searches" at AOL.com and it was all the buzz over at Yahoo Buzz, topping even curiosity about Madonna's impending divorce.

Enterprising Web surfers who skipped the search engines altogether and typed www.joetheplumber.com directly into their browser landed on the website of an Amarillo, Texas-based plumber who bills himself as the "Friendliest Plumber in Town."

The real name of “Joe the plumber” is Sam Joe Wurzelbacher and he was mentioned by the candidates more than two dozen times yesterday, after questioning Democratic candidate Barack Obama about his tax policy at a rally last week.

"I'm getting ready to buy a company that makes $US250,000 a year. Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" he asked Senator Obama at the time.

Republicans rejoiced, and John McCain made Joe the Plumber a theme of the third and final debate, in an attempt to woo blue collar voters.

Joe the Plumber said Thursday he doesn't have a license and doesn't need one, because he works for someone else.