Message From Michael -- Special Edition -- 2007, A Year In Review

THE YEAR THAT WAS: It was the year of the cell phone and the year of the iPhone. And if you were ‘cool,’ your ringtone was either T-Pain’s Buy U A Drink or Mims’ This Is Why I’m Hot, according to Nielsen Media’s most popular lists for 2007 OR if you believe Google it was a mosquito ringtone, the theme from 24 or The Office. It was the year of social media, the year of word of mouth, the year of consumer media, the digital year and the year of search engines. According to AOL’s list of searches, the number one topic for the year – WEATHER. Just what we consultants have been telling you. Anyway, we took a look at the top search engines to find a picture of what we’re all about. This is NOT a comprehensive, complete, review of 2007 but rather my own version of Schott’s Miscellany, a look at what the lists tell us about ourselves. In fact, this went so long and there was so much more that we will have an update in next week’s edition of MfM looking at trends in 2007 and expected trends in 2008.

THE ZEIGEIST – SPIRIT OF THE TIMES: That’s what Google calls its list of search requests from 2007. Topping the list both globally and in the U.S. was the iPhone. Bu after that it takes a distinctly different turn. For example, badoo, a social networking site for adults, comes in second in terms of ‘fastest rising’ interest globally while Webkinz, a social networking site for kids, comes in second in terms of ‘fastest growing’ website in the U.S. Another ‘kids’ social networking site, Club Penguin, scores on both sides with a 6th place in the U.S. and a 10th place globally. Oddly, Facebook comes in 3rd in global searches but 9th in U.S. searches. Other oddities: Second Life scores globally in the top ten (8) but doesn’t in the U.S.; on the global ‘fastest rising’ are dailymotion, ebuddy, and hi5 which don’t show up on the U.S. top ten. On the flip side of that, TMZ, Heroes and Anna Nicole Smith show up on the U.S. search, but don’t show up on the global search.

Yahoo didn’t have any cute title for its search compendium, but the site provided is own insight into our psyche, albeit a more traditional one. The iPhone made its top ten list but in sixth place, along with iTunes at 4 and the iPod at 5. Topping the list was YouTube followed by Wikipedia and Facebook. Games Nintendo Wii, Xbox and Playstation 3 made the list, with online video rock game Guitar Hero rounding out the top 10 list. What may say more is the Yahoo owned bookmarking site del.icio.us where the number one spot was DESIGN, as in web design and creativity. And in keeping with the tech-savvy nature of the site, the other unusual search item was ubuntu which is a Linux-based software application. The rest were pretty standard: HDTV, Games, Music, Web 2.0, Video, Travel, Photography and Mac.

GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER: That’s the headline for the environmental section which took center stage on Yahoo’s list of searches. Toping the list of such searches was Recycling, followed by Global Warming, Freecycle which is a movement in which you give away stuff you don’t want instead of trashing it, Earth, Pollution, Al Gore, the Environmental Protection Agency, Live Earth which is the program of concerts presented to raise awareness of environmental issues, hybrid cars and solar energy.

THE INTELLECTUAL LIST: Actually it’s not that. The New York Times list of top ten books from 2007 also gives us an insight into our collective psyche. For example, the top fiction book (as selected by the editors) was Man Gone Down, a novel exploring four desperate days in a black writer’s life while the top non-fiction book was Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a look at American governance in Iraq. After that, the other fiction books making the list were: Out Stealing Horses, a Norwegian novel about loneliness, The Savage Detectives, an autobiographical novel about a band of ‘literary guerillas’, Then We Came to the End, a novel about a white collar office in the wake of the dot-com bust, and Tree of Smoke, a novel about people in the Vietnam war. In the non-fiction area, second choice was Little Heathens, a memoir about life on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression, The Nine, a look at the world of the Supreme Court, The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh, tracking her travels and travails across the 18th Century, and The Rest is Noise, an examination of classical music of the last century.

JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: The top ten stories, according to a survey of U.S. editors and news directors by the Associated Press, in 2007 were the Virginia Tech killings, followed by the mortgage crisis, the Iraq war, Oil prices, Chinese exports, Global warming, the Minneapolis bridge collapse, the Presidential campaign, the Immigration debate and finally, Iran’s nuclear program. Time magazine’s top ten list added the protests in Thailand, the “goodbye” to Harry Potter, the stem cell research breakthrough, the Barry Bonds steroid scandal and the iPhone release.

For a different perspective, Yahoo’s list of the top ten stories of 2007 based on search interest found the Virginia Tech story at #10 instead of #1. At #1 was the cell phone footage of Saddam Hussein’s final moments which, even though it happened at the very end of 2006, “so rattled the web… that (it) dwarfed all other news queries in 2007.” Iran with its nuclear program and outspoken president came in #2, followed by Iraq, President George W. Bush in part because of Karl Rove’s departure, oil and gas prices at #5, followed by Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton (in that order). Then it was the San Diego fire at #8, Afghanistan and, finally, Virginia Tech. And, again, for a different perspective, AOL’s “news” search list adds Phentermine, the weight loss drug; the pet food recall; global warming; Juanita Bynum, the preacher whose preacher husband assaulted her; Immigration and Don Imus.

CELEBRITIES: Shock of shocks, Britney Spears was the top celebrity search on AOL, Yahoo and Google followed as usual by Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Not exactly shocking, but interesting, most of the search services played down the celebrity searches in their end of year summaries. For a different perspective, Ticketmaster’s list of most requested events in 2007 was topped by Wicked but just behind it was Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus, followed by The Police, Kenny Chesney, the New England Patriots, Dave Matthews Band, Chicago Bears, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice and rounding out the top ten – Celine Dion.

Marc Berman who produces The Programming Insider look at television’s daily machinations named Drew Carey as one of the winners of 2007 but had four losers in 2007 including Isaiah Washington who went from Grey’s Anatomy to Bionic Woman, Mandy Patinkin who left Chicago’s Hope, Viva Laughlin and Rosie O’Donnell. Just for a completely different perspective, management guru Tom Peters picked former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as one of his heroes of 2007 because although she was kicked out, it was her ideas (he says) that turned the company around; along with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who Peters called the CEO of California who turned the state around.

And when it comes to TV, another shock of shocks, the top show was American Idol, according to AOL as well as Nielsen Media. Interestingly both of them also saw Dancing With The Stars as the #2 show. Google also made a nod to the Idol phenomenon but when it came to ‘showbiz,’ the search results put NBC’s Heroes at the top of its list followed by Lost, House, 24 and Bones rounding out the top five.

A MOMENT OF LEVITY: This may say as much about us as anything else I’ve reported. Here are the top ten “extraordinarily peculiar EBay purchases,” according to unusual and fun website WebUpon.com. Topping the list was the grilled cheese sandwich that appeared to have the face of the Virgin Mary upon it. Price: $28,000. Then there’s the guy who sold a jar that he said he found around an old cemetery and that he claimed contained a ghost inside. An 18 year old British girl sold her virginity on eBay to pay her college tuition. The winning bidder gave her the money but didn’t take her up on the offer. A man sold his ex-wife’s wedding dress after posing in it and writing a ‘hilarious’ rant. In #5 was the Doritos cheese chip in the shape of the Pope’s hat, followed by “the meaning of life” depicted by a rainbow picture which sold for $3.26; a vampire killing kit and the window and frame from which John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Price: $3,001,501. After that was 26 real, honest-to-goodness shrunken heads from the Jibaro Indian tribe in Ecuador which only garnered $25, and finally, a Brazilian company sold a so-called UFO detector which would ‘flash and beep” whenever a UFO was around for $135.

A FINAL SOMBER STATISTIC: It wouldn’t be appropriate to end this 2007 year in review without noting a report by the International Federation of Journalists which reported that 171 journalists were killed in 2007. That is slightly less than the 177 killed the year before in 2006. The most deadly country was Iraq with 65 killed. All but one were Iraqi nationals. Eight journalists were killed in Somalia, seven in Pakistan, six in Mexico and in Sri Lanka and five in the Philippines. It should be noted that of that 171 number, 134 were actually killings while 37 media workers died accidentally on the job.

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR: The Telecommunications/ Broadcast News department of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is doing a survey of media industry types (that means most of you) to find out what you are looking for in graduates and employees, what are the important skills needed. So I will be asking you to go on-line to fill out a short survey. Please take part. It will help us and it will help you. – Okay, commercial over.