Message From Michael 
December 21, 2009
THE YEAR IN REVIEW – A SPECIAL EDITION
· WHO’S WRONG OR RIGHT
· TWO TURKISH DELIGHTS
· KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES
· JUDE THE OBSCURE
· TACKY AWARD OF THE YEAR
· DUMB PATENTS OF THE YEAR
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WHO’S WRONG OR RIGHT: It doesn’t matter because Michael Jackson didn’t just beat it; he beat everything when it came to the top search topics of 2009. Whether it was Google, Yahoo, Bing or Twitter, the pop idol’s death was the number one topic, almost across the board. No surprise there. What may be a little surprising (and may be heartening) to those who believe such reports only confirm the celebrity obsession culture is that the Iranian election was far and away the top topic for “Twitterers”, according to the official Twitter website as well as spin-off site Whatthetrend.com. That’s not to say celebrities didn’t dominate as usual. On Yahoo, the top ten included Megan Fox, Britney Spears and Kim Kardashian. On Bing, it was Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Jon and Kate Goselin, Billy Mays and Jaycee Durgan. And just so you’re in with the in crowd, you should know that Amy Winehouse is out (she was on Google’s GLOBAL “fastest falling” search list) while Lady Gaga is in (She was on Google’s GLOBAL “fastest rising” list.) In the category of entertainment, Google’s list indicates Eminem is back, along with Beyonce and Natasha Richardson. President Barack Obama also had the dubious distinction of making the “fastest falling” list on Google and only made it to number 44 on Yahoo’s list. A different kind of personality also dominated the search engine trends – Vampires. Shows like TrueBlood and movies like The Twilight Saga, New Moon were prominent search items along with Paranormal Activity, District 9 as well as Transformers.
TWO TURKISH DELIGHTS: Continuing the what’s hot, what’s not theme. KralOyun is out; Sanalika is in. If you’re like me, you’re saying, ‘heck, that kral thing is out before I even knew what it was it was and that san thing is in and I don’t even know what it is.’ Well, they’re both virtual world or multi-layer games. Now, you’re saying to yourself, ‘that’s why I didn’t know about them; I’m not some teen video game enthusiast.’ No, actually, that’s probably not the reason. There are some video game enthusiasts who are Message readers. The real reason is that they’re Turkish in origin. According to website TechCrunch whose editors were as surprised as you and I were, the reason is that there are 14 Million Turks online and when they do searches, they do a blanket kind of search which generates more hits. Or something like that. But if you are really into video games (which more and more research indicates is the trend of the future, along with mobile), then Runescape is the name of the game. It isn’t just a multi-player online role playing game (MORPG), according to Yahoo, where it made the top ten list; it’s a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). Continuing the fantasy vein, Naruto isn’t just an anime or manga, it is THE manga series. It came in at number six on Yahoo’s list of hot search topics and number four on Google’s fastest rising list in entertainment. It is the story of a boy and his sword. Actually, it’s the story about a young ninja who wants to become the ‘hokage’ – the top ninja in his village.
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: Or the Gonzalezes. Or the Wangs. Or the Nguyens. The ‘global village’ that is the Internet is very much apparent in the hot search topics. It is most apparent in Google’s Zeitgeist which has four different countries in its top ten of fastest rising global websites. Sanalika mentioned above from
JUDE THE OBSCURE: If like the title character in Thomas Hardy’s novel (See, I don’t just do rock and roll references), you want to be a scholar, then the various websites and topics from the various search engines can help you. Of course it depends on what you want to learn. For example, I don’t know what learning about the search for the Yeti-like mythical character, Chupacabra, mentioned as one of the hot topics on Yahoo’s buzz blog list does for you. But it is interesting to find that the hot new health food is the Acai Berry whose antioxidant capacity is so much higher than its cousins, blueberries and cranberries, that it is touted as a “superfood” with anti-aging and even weight loss properties. Probably more to the point is the cultural snapshot that the searches provide. Some would say that there is none better for this than Twitter. And you can get that weekly through some of the top twitter hashtags. For example, the top hashtag is #musicmonday where people share the favorite or recommended music choices. But if you want to dig a little deeper, and some might say darker, into the culture, track hashtags #unacceptable where people exchange what they find is ‘unacceptable’ and #3drunkwords which, as the name says, is a way to share the three words someone utters in a drunken state. Warning – some of the exchanges can be raunchy. Much nicer, is #friendfriday where people tweet the names of people they like or think you should follow. It didn’t make Twitter’s top ten, but it did make the top 50 list on whatthetrend. Another one of those footnotes I like so much, whatthetrend noted that one of the top twitters concerned Glee, a Fox TV show about a high school glee club which, while popular in the
TACKY AWARD OF THE YEAR: The honchos at ABC News just made it under the wire, but managed to win my first ever Tacky Award with the December 18th broadcast in which Charlie Gibson made his final appearance. One of the more interesting points he made during his farewell speech was that objectivity no longer seemed to be the valuable asset it once was in news. It was a very thoughtful and heartfelt speech in which he became obviously emotional. That was followed by a series of humorous and serious soundbites from politicians and celebrities talking about Gibson. Out of that, they came to a shot of Gibson at the desk surrounded by the various people who work there. They applauded him; he applauded them. And then… then they immediately went to a promo spot for his replacement, Diane Sawyer, starting Monday, with some marketing genius’s allegedly witty play on the words “no” and “know.” Okay, admittedly, commentary on my part, but the crassness really is astounding.
DUMB PATENTS OF THE YEAR: My message may be a little late for you to rush out and get these for Christmas, but here are some gift suggestions for next year for the person who has everything. A toilet-training watch. Disposable diapers with a camouflage pattern. Condoms shaped like a filled beer glass. A fingernail sander with its own debris bag. A sun visor complete with hair. These are some of the dumb patents applied for in 2009, according to The New York Times. Want some more? Apparently putting two different ideas into one is a big deal for inventors. Things like the combined letter opener, screen cleaner and pen cap. Or the towel that also doubles up as a handbag. Or the combined manure fork and fan-type shavings blower. The greeting card that also can be used to hold socks. And the list goes on… and on… and on.
NOT SO DUMB VIDEOS OF THE YEAR: Okay, so you can’t go out in time for Christmas and buy yourself an abnormality alarm device (another of the 2009 dumb patents), but you can watch some of the great viral videos of the year, courtesy of website Mashable. Some of them you may already have seen. Such as the baby who dances to Beyonce. The president of The Feed Company, Josh Warner, who selected the videos, is probably right when he says the ads on this must-watch video will probably pay for the kid’s college education. Or there is the guy whose guitar was broken by baggage handlers at United, and who now probably has enough publicity to put together a full orchestra. Interestingly, the list dispels the myth that all viral videos must be short, ‘snackable’ videos. The videos range in length from a minute and 39 seconds to 12 minutes and 13 seconds. The top choice is a five-minute homage to one kid’s incredible wall-climbing, stair-case-jumping, rooftop-hopping biking skills, produced by Inspired bicycles. The list shows how companies can capitalize on the viral video phenomenon – such as Volkswagen’s video showing how a subway staircase was turned into piano keys, convincing two-thirds of the people in a test to use the stairs instead of the nearby escalator. Or, how companies can embarrass themselves—Microsoft attempting to some how connect the release of Windows 7 to a kind of The Big Chill gathering of friends. And, if you liked last year’s viral video of the guy catching Ray-Ban sunglasses with his face, you’ll love this year’s spoof version where a guy catches a laptop with his butt.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS: To all my friends and acquaintances, strangers and not-so strangers, subscribers and other readers, broadcasters and ink-stained wretches, new media and old media people, social media and anti-social media friends, those in the mainstream and those not even in the river, mobile and stationary; whoever you are, I wish you peace and happiness. The message will go silent over the holidays…unless something really interesting happens. But we’ll be back in the New Year with a look at the trends and issues, predictions and prognostications for the next year in media.
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