What YouTube Says About Us

Posted by Kenneth Ronkowitz on

In Serendipity35's quest to find meaning from the end-of-the-year lists on technology, we come to online video. The usage of that medium was at an all time high this past year. I expect it will be higher in 2010. This was the first year that YouTube/Google made a most-watched list and other stats available. (I found it on the YouTube Blog)

Some of the big hits were big events (President Obama's inauguration), some big hits were small events (a Minnesota wedding party that erupts into dance), some you expected to be big ("New Moon"), some surprised us all (Susan Boyle). Oddlyl enough, they entertained and connected millions of people around the world in a way that television rarely does any more.

YouTube looked at view counts for their most popular videos which sometimes meant aggregating views across multiple versions of the same video (people frequently repost the same videos). Here are some of the results:

Most Watched YouTube videos (Global):
1. Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent (120+ million views)
2. David After Dentist (37+ million views)
3. JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
4. New Moon Movie Trailer (31+ million views)
5. Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)

I'm looking for the educational, socially-redeeming value. I'm not finding it.

Most Watched music videos on YouTube (Global)*:
1. Pitbull - I Know You Want Me (82+ million views)
2. Miley Cyrus - The Climb (64+ million views)
3. Miley Cyrus - Party In The U.S.A. (54+ million views)
4. The Lonely Island - I'm On A Boat (48+ million views)
5. Keri Hilson - Knock You Down (35+ million views)


Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (Global):
January: inauguration
February: christian bale
March: the climb
April: susan boyle
May: pacquiao vs hatton
June: michael jackson thriller
July: michael jackson
August: usain bolt
September: kanye west
October: paranormal activity
November: bad romance
December: tiger woods

Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (U.S.):
January: obama inauguration
February: on a boat
March: watchmen
April: susan boyle
May: pacquiao
June: michael jackson thriller
July: wedding
August: send it on
September: kanye west
October: paranormal activity
November: adam lambert
December: tiger woods

What does YouTube say about us? We are shallow and obsessed by celebrity.
How does this online video viewing compare to our traditional television viewing? Not so different.

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

Comments

Display comments as Linear | Threaded

No comments

Add Comment

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images.
BBCode format allowed
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.
To leave a comment you must approve it via e-mail, which will be sent to your address after submission.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA