The last day of 2013 is a perfect time to reflect on the year, what we have accomplished and what we hope to accomplish in the coming year. But it is much more fun to review the year by way of the most talked about topics online: viral videos, new words added to the dictionary and random fun facts!

Viral Videos

There is no way to predict what videos will become viral sensations, but there are some commonalities to those that do: funny, entertaining and meme-able. Here are a few of the videos from 2013 that had the most views.

The most viral video of 2013 was “What Did the Fox Say?” With over 310 million views. And it only debuted four months ago in September.

The second most viral video of 2013 was “Harlem Shake.” While the original video racked up more than 26 million views, it’s the parodies and copies of the clip (more than 1.7 million) that turned it into a smash meme of 2013. It debuted in February.

Interestingly, some of the year’s other most watched YouTube videos were ads (Dove, WestJet, Kmart and Volvo) or music videos like Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball. The fact that brand videos–essentially long-form commercials–can be the most viewed and most parodied videos of the year is a great sign for marketers. Advertising is not dead: it is simply evolving.

My favorite video was about the hashtag. The hashtag hit its tipping point this year. While it has been around for a long time, it has now made it into the vocabulary of teens to grandmothers and all in between. In 2013, marketers finally went all in on the hashtag, too: 35% of Super Bowl ads included a visually displayed hashtag.

Top Trending Google Searches of 2013

  1. Paul Walker (Fast & Furious)
  2. Boston Marathon Bombing
  3. Nelson Mandela
  4. Cory Monteith (Glee)
  5. iPhone 5s
  6. Government Shutdown
  7. James Gandolfini
  8. Harlem Shake
  9. Royal Baby
  10. Adrian Peterson

When looking at the top trending Google searches, the overwhelming theme is “people.”  Yes, people love their iPhones. And we are all curious about major news events. But the thread throughout is the people. The internet brings us closer together.

Favorite Random Facts

The selfie has made its mark this year with more than 35 million photos on Instagram tagged #selfie. And became the Oxford dictionary’s word of the year.

Snapchat declined acquisition offers of $4 billion from Facebook and Google. Unbelievable.

Pinterest’s most followed board is LL Bean’s Woodland Creatures with 4.5 million followers.

 

Facebook users are using Facebook frequently: 95% of Facebook users log into their Facebook accounts daily.

Vine and Instagram videos were introduced this year.

The Pope became Facebook’s most talked about individual in the world.

72% of online adults use social networking sites.

Miley Cyrus twerking at the VMAs produced 306,000 tweets per minute.

In late August 2013, the Oxford Dictionaries Online added a handful of web- and viral content-related words to its archives:

  • Selfie
  • Digital detox
  • Bitcoin
  • BYOD
  • Emoji
  • FOMO
  • Geek chic
  • Hackerspace
  • Phablet
  • Srsly
  • TL;DR
  • Twerk

According to the Urban Dictionary, srsly is either written out of laziness, a complete inability to spell or type, or in a failed attempt to be amusing. Srsly, these words were added to the dictionary. Happy new year!