December 2009

20 Favorite Viral Videos From 2009

viral copyAs we approach a new year, it’s always fun to take a look back at what happened over the past year.  I thought it might be fun to take a look back at some of our favorite viral videos from 2009.

As I began looking into some of top viral videos from the year, I discovered that Visible Measures, a video tracking site, created a list of the top 10 most watched viral videos for 2009.  I was a little heart broken to learn that 8 out of the 10 were music videos.  While music videos are a major part of the American culture, I think the videos below, are the ones that really make 2009 complete. (more…)

Facebook Takes Gold From Google

facebookmedal copyAs we all know Google has been the number one internet site in the US for as far back as many of us can remember.  Hitwise announced via Twitter, that Facebook was the number 1 visited site on Christmas Day, for the first time ever.  Now it’s obvious that people wanted to wish their friends and families “Merry Christmas,” which is the reason for the top spot.

Hitwise hasn’t released any actual numbers at this time, but regardless, this is a very important mark in Facebook’s history.  As Facebook continues to grow pasts it’s 350 million users, the site could very soon dominate the most US visited site list.  (more…)

Twitter Makes Extraordinary Prediction

3231178720_5e2c1c45a8By the time you finish reading this article, nearly 30,000 tweets will have been posted.   On December 19, Mashable announced that there were officially more than more tweets in the world than people.  While the world population is roughly 6.79 billion people, the number of tweets is now well over 7 billion.  It took roughly three years, to get 7 billion tweets, which is very impressive.  That’s averaging 1.75 billion tweets a year, mind you that Twitter hit 3 billion tweets in April of this year followed by 5 billion in mid-late October. 

In an Online Times article, Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone write, “In the new year, Twitter will begin supporting a billion search queries a day. We will be delivering several billion tweets per hour to users around the world.” (more…)

Video Changing The Social Media Game

blogtvsOnline videos have become part of our everyday culture.  Within the past two weeks, the latest viral video, which features a 5 year old Japanese boy, playing the ukulele while attempting to sing Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”, has had more than 9 million views.  While we will never get tired of watching videos like that, watching live events on our computer’s is becoming increasingly popular. 

Over 10 million people tuned in to watch U2’s live YouTube concert in October, the first ever concert to be broadcast live on video site.  President Obama’s inauguration in January was one of the largest live online viewing events in history.  According to NewTeeVee,  69.8 million people watched the President’s inauguration streamed live online, while only 37.8 million watched on television.  (more…)

Pepsi To Drop Super Bowl & Use Social Media

pepsiThere is always that age old question, why do people watch the Super Bowl?  Many watch for the game itself, while others just tune in for the half time show.  And others tune in just for the commercials.  Commerial airtime during the Super Bowl is always   the most expensive time for advertisers to advertise since it is the most viewed event on television.  One commercial you don’t see in the next Super Bowl, Pepsi. 

The company has announced they will not be making a commercial for the 2010 Super Bowl, instead they will focus on a $20 million social media advertising campaign.  ABC News reports that the company will launch the Pepsi Refresh Project on January 13, where online users can submit ideas to help ‘refresh their communities to make a better world.’ (more…)

Facebook’s Trends of 2009

3d-text-effect-2009 copyAs I predicted earlier this month, everyone is pumping out data from the what happened this year.  Last week, I shared with you some of Twitter’s most tweeted words.  Now this week, Facebook has decided to share some of the most talked about topics through status updates. 

“Status updates on Facebook help people understand their friends and the people around them–how they’re feeling, what they’re doing and what they’re thinking,” says Facebook’s Lars Backstrom in a Facebook statement. “In the United States alone, people on Facebook are sharing hundreds of millions of words every day, thousands per second, in status updates. When taken as a whole, these words offer a unique barometer into the issues, world events and thoughts that are connecting people.” (more…)

Email Blamed For Twitter Hacking

emailIcon copyChaos broke out late Thursday night and early Friday morning as the Iranian Cyber Army took over Twitter.  Microbloggers worldwide were lost on what exactly was going on, and were unsure where they would be able to send their tweets.  While the matter is still being investigated, reports from Twitter’s service provider, Dynect Inc. has said they are not the reason for the the break in as Twitter had first believed.  It now seems the hackers were able to get into Twitter staff members emails and obtain the passwords to change the settings through Dynect.

“Someone logged in who purported to be a legitimate user of their [DNS] platform account and started making changes,” said Tom Daly, chief technology officer at Dyn to The Washington Post. (more…)

YouTuber Turns Into Hollywood Director

youtubeThe Internet and social media has started a new boom of celebrities.  It used to be that if you wanted to act or sing, you had to go to audition after audition.  If that didn’t work, it was your connections through the industry that got you in.  Today, you don’t even have to leave your home to get fame.  We’ve seen it over and over again.  Both Sean Kingston & Lily Allen gained their fame through posting their music on MySpace.  YouTube has also been the birth of celebrities.  We’ve seen the success of Fred, who just wrapped up filming his first motion picture over the weekend, while bloggers like iJustine continue to have millions of followers.

As of early this morning, thanks to the power of YouTube there is a new celebrity in town.  His name is Fede Alvarez and you likely won’t see his face everywhere.  Alvarez, who is from Uraguay, likes to make videos behind the scenes.  Just last month, Alvarez posted a 4 minute movie, which he had shot on a $300 budget.  Less than 4 days after publishing the video online, Alvarez says he started getting offers from Hollywood to film and direct a similar sci-fi thriller. (more…)

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