Here's a trivia question: Based on YouTube searches, what was the top trending animal on YouTube this month in the United States? It's not what you might think...
Yes, goats. (If you missed this one and want to know more about how exactly screaming goats became so popular this month, here's one video that discusses the whole phenomenon.)
Google Trends enables you to take popular search queries and explore traffic patterns over time and geography. Now we've added YouTube search data going back to 2008, making it another great tool to look at video trends. Visit Google Trends and enter any search you'd like and then, on the left, choose "limit to" for YouTube. You can slice by region or category as well.
Search query interest can often provide a more detailed picture into the life of a trend or topic. For example: for those of you wondering whether the "Harlem Shake" is over... it's not.
You can also see interesting seasonal patterns. For example, cooking searches for "turkey" in the US see dramatic spikes every November as people scramble to remember exactly how to prep that big meal before the relatives arrive.
And Rebecca Black searches spike once each week. Guess which day...
This time last year, you may not have heard about Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter Gotye, but now his work seems inescapable for many. In particular the song, "Somebody That I Used to Know" has become a global hit, the official video has over 175 million views and currently sits at the #1 spot on YouTube's music chart.
That original video first hit the web in July of 2011, but the clip drew an impressive, though relatively modest 30 million views (nearly half in December) with many of the interest coming from Germany, Australia, and the Netherlands.
In 2012, the video has averaged over 35 million views per month and has become incredibly popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Poland. In addition to obvious increases in radio airplay, part of the YouTube popularity stems from a very viral cover from January by the band "Walk Off the Earth" that features five performers using one guitar; it's been seen 94 million times. This month, a cover on Glee and The Voice have also stirred up new buzz.
"Gotye" is one of 2012's top rising searches, and so for a better picture of how popularity has changed over time, below you can see the relative weekly search interest for "Gotye."
With word of his passing at age 75, "Soul Train" host Don Cornelius has become the top rising search on YouTube Wednesday afternoon as music fans of all ages seek out video of the long-time broadcaster.
On it's YouTube channel, "Soul Train" has a number of classic interviews conducted by Cornelius with some of music's biggest stars through the 1970s and 80s that remind us of his work and of the dance music that surrounded him.
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
Some of the top rising searches today on YouTube are tied to some Thanksgiving traditions both new and old. There are lots of searches (and newly uploaded videos) from Ohio State's famous annual Mirror Lake Jump.
Meanwhile, others search for info on Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving song -- you can learn to play it on guitar yourself here -- while others seek out clips from the classic Peanuts "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving."
NYPD officers reportedly "raided" Zuccotti park in downtown New York City early Tuesday morning and we're seeing a rise in interest in the area on YouTube this morning as searches for its name are spiking. The park was home to the original "Occupy Wall Street" encampment.
Citizentube has collected a series of videos from the confrontation between officers and protesters as NYPD approached and cleared the area.
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
It's Halloween and while there are lots of spooky tunes cropping up among our top rising searches -- "Monster Mash" is a notable one -- it's certainly not a surprise to see Michael Jackson's classic "Thriller" on the list. There are quite a few versions of "Thriller" and its famous dance available on YouTube from all around the globe and all different types of performers.
Here are 10 of the most-viewed:
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
After only "Steve Jobs," "iPhone 4s" was the top rising search globally on YouTube last week, and the official video introducing Apple's voice control app, Siri, was seen over one million times.
The announcement of the 4s caused a predictable sharp spike in "iPhone" searches that dwarfs the spikes for previous releases in the past few years. We've plotted out the weekly search interest below:
Over 20,000 videos tagged "iPhone" were posted in the past week, a mix of official videos, news videos, parodies, and other reactions. Some of the most popular parodies were those spoofing Apple's commercials and promos, like this one, which has been seen over 400,000 times:
More: As noted above, "Steve Jobs" was the top rising search last week and his 2005 Stanford commencement speech was third. The address was watched roughly 4.6 million times in the past 7 days. More on the reaction to the sad news of his passing here.
One of the most popular trending videos of the week is this clip of two seniors trying to operate a webcam with little success. Its popularity is evidenced by the nearly two million views over the past few days and by this sample of today's top rising searches: "old couple computer," "elderly couple can t figure out computer," "older couple trying to take picture on computer," "old couple trying to skype," "seniors accidental video." It's also the most-shared video of the day.
The video -- which was uploaded in August by a user named Mindy in the United States -- first became popular on pop-culture sites Tuesday afternoon, and drew 1.6 million views on Wednesday.
This is actually not the first clip of its kind to draw a big audience. Back in June, Rita and Frank's similarly accidental clip also drew a following and 1.4 million views.
Two major natural events affecting much of the United States East Coast occured last week, causing big spikes in searches for on-the-scene and news footage on YouTube. In fact, "Hurricane Irene" was the top rising search on YouTube in the United States over the past seven days.
Below you can see searches for "earthquake" (blue) and "hurricane" (red) over recent weeks:
The last major U.S. spike we saw around the word "hurricane" was back in September of 2008, when Hurricane Ike caused severe damage to the coast of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico.
The east coast earthquake also caused a smaller spike in searches last week, but it was still the third largest we've seen for the word "earthquake" since 2008. The largest spike ever came earlier this year following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Second was the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
(Mouse over the spikes to view the correlating earthquake.)
The top rising search on YouTube this morning is for videos of R&B star Aaliyah Haughton who passed away in a 2001 plane crash at the age of 22. Today marks the 10th anniversary of her passing, which is likely the reason for the search spike.
While many are checking out videos for some of her most popular songs, we've also been seeing many talented Aaliyah fans posting videos of themselves covering their own favorites as a tribute. We've seen at least 50 from the past few days. Here's a selection of 10:
We're seeing a big spike in searches this afternoon related to the earthquake that struck the east coast. Most of the searches are tied to the regions that felt the tremors including, D.C., Virginia, and New York. Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move" is near the top of rising searches as well and is currently the fast rising music search.
As of 6pmET, nearly 2,300 videos tagged with "earthquake" have been uploaded past the previous 24 hours, though it's unclear how many are directly tied to this event. Many of these are reaction videos from people who wanted to share their experience and thoughts immediately following the quake:
We're also seeing a bunch of videos posted from people who happened to have their cameras running for one reason or another when the earthquake hit. Here's a playlist of a few:
Some feel a little less genuine than others. In fact, there are quite a few videos that are being posted poking fun at the "hysteria" around the relatively minor, though very unexpected earthquake.
There are many news videos and reports regarding the quake also hitting YouTube quickly, not all of them professional...
The top rising search terms on YouTube this morning as well as last night revolve around an air show incident at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan Sunday. Todd Green, wing-walker and stuntman, fell 200 feet and died during a mid-air stunt involving a helicopter and biplane.
Bystanders who were filming the stunt accidentally captured footage of the tragic moment. Update: Here's a news report containing some of that video:
Sadly, this was not the only air show tragedy to take place this weekend or draw significant interest on YouTube. A second stunt-gone-wrong occurred in Kansas city where pilot Bryan Jensen was killed after his biplane crashed during a performance.
A number of the top rising searches on YouTube last night as well as this morning center on footage of a on-court fight that broke out in Beijing Thursday, between the Georgetown Hoyas basketball team and China's Bayi Rockets.
The story and footage was picked up by multiple blogs and news sources yesterday afternoon and interest spread quickly. There are numerous versions of footage floating around -- some of which are among the most-viewed in the United States today -- but here is a raw clip from the Associated Press:
There's a pretty amazing variety of content that's available on YouTube every day, and, as we know, there are certain things that we can learn better from a video than text. One of those things is how to pronounce something properly and so Google has some interesting data around our pronunciation interests over the past couple of years in the United States.
In 2010, the top rising pronunciation search on YouTube was for Ke$ha. If you look at the data for Google in general, the top rising searches for pronunciations over the last few years were for acai (2009) Icelandic volcano eyjafjallajokull (2010) and, so far in 2011, new zodiac sign ophiuchus.
YouTube channel Pronunciationbook, which created the above video and roughly 350 others, has seen its views grow steadily over the past year, and drew some attention from pop-culture sites this week. "Ke$sha is one of their most popular, with over 100,00 views. The only others to draw more interest were Hermès, Acai, Louboutin, and L'OCCITANE.
Of course, there are lots of comedic videos tied to pronouncing things properly (or improperly) as well, like this clip from around this year's Super Bowl:
In the four years of YouTube search data we poured through, this summer has had the two largest spikes in search interest for the word "riot" we've ever seen.
This week, "london riots" has been the relative #1 rising search overall globally on YouTube, creating the big jump depicted in the chart below, which shows relative interest dating back to January 2008. The smaller, but still substantial jump earlier in the summer is from the post-Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver, which also spurred significant interest from YouTube viewers.
More dramatic user-generated footage from the riots:
Back in May, we discussed how a popular fad/prank in Australia called "planking" was starting to spread to the United States. (Australia is apparently the new hotbed for silly, inventive pranks now.)
In the past month, over 8,000 videos have been posted of or about people planking, where someone is filmed or photographed laying facedown motionless and stiff. (Tom Green even posted one of him performing the prank all the way back in 1994.) While it may seem at this point that it could be on its way out, YouTube's data shows, planking is still pretty popular, particularly in the United States.
The chart below shows daily searches globally for "Planking." Interestingly, the first spike is entirely associated with searches from Australia, while the second swell is almost entirely associated with search interest from the United States.
This meanwhile as another similar gag called "owling" has started to take off. We've seen upwards of 500 "owling" videos posted in the past two weeks or so. If you haven't seen this one already, here's an explanation from -- where else? -- Australia:
News of Amy Winehouse's untimely passing prompted music fans -- and others looking to learn more about the singer -- to seek out some of the 27 year old's most popular songs this weekend, according to YouTube's viewing and search data.
The top rising search on YouTube of the past week is, in fact, "amy winehouse rehab," the 2006-2007 hit single. Before this weekend, the largest previous spike in searches for "winehouse" on YouTube, came in June, when video leaked of a disastrous performance the star delivered in Belgrade.
Official videos of "Rehab" were watched around 6.5 million times over the weekend, while other songs like "Back to Black" and "You Know I'm No Good" were seen over 4 million times each.
The chart below shows the dramatic rise in views Saturday, when reports first spread.
One of the top rising searches on YouTube today is for footage of the stage collapsing at the Ottawa Bluesfest yesterday during Cheap Trick's set. Severe thunderstorms caused the stage to fall. The band survived without injury, however a number of fans in the crowd were injured.
Several witnesses documented the incident on camera.
(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)
The top rising search on YouTube this morning is for information/news reports of the Texas Rangers fan who sadly fell to his death yesterday reaching for a ball tossed into the outfield stands. The story has sparked a significant amount of national interest and Josh Hamilton, the Rangers outfielder who threw the souvenir, is a top spiking search on Google Trends as well this morning.
Among NBA fans, all eyes were on Newark, NJ last night where the league's 2011 draft took place, but, for many, they quickly shifted to YouTube where we saw a spike in search interest around some of the top prospects.
In the hours immediately following the draft, many of the late first-round selections for big city teams were among the top rising searches on YouTube as fans sought out highlight reels and interview clips:
Norris Cole - The Cleveland State guard was the top rising search on YouTube last evening after he was picked up via a series of swaps from the NBA Championship runners-up, the Miami Heat. You can see highlights from his 41-point game against Youngstown State here.
Iman Shumpert - This Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket was drafted by the New York Knicks and was our #2 top rising search. Draft preview highlights.
Jajuan Johnson - The Boston Celtics picked up this Purdue player who was our third top rising search. Draft preview.
Nikola Mirotic - The newest Chicago Bull comes from Serbia. Rising Star video from Euroleague basketball.
Marshon Brooks - The Providence guard is headed to New Jersey. You can see his draft workout here.
Other players that were trending searches after the draft ended: Jimmy Butler (Chicago), Jordan Hamilton (Portland), Nikola Vucevic (Philadelphia), and Tristan Thompson (Cleveland), respectively.
