As the year winds down for most (and seems to pick up speed for us) we thought we’d collect all of the “Best of” and “Year in Review” posts the big guys are putting out, so you can find all your retrospective 2014 material in one place. First off, you’re gonna want to listen to Daniel Kim’s Pop Danthology while you read this post. Got that cued up and buffering? Let’s go!
Facebook Has All the Feels
Facebook gets all nostalgic with a video covering the biggest moments of 2014 (hosted on Vimeo, just to be difficult) and a very pretty site that allows you to browse through images of those moments and explore the ones that interest you in a bit more depth. They also celebrated a decade of Pokes, Likes and Friend Requests with Lookback, a feature that compiles a short video highlighting each user’s time on the site. Try it out if you haven’t already, it’s all kinds of nostalgiac.
Youtube Rewinds
Youtube SA has a channel dedicated to this called Youtube Rewind. The Youtube team not only made their own video (because, video, duh) paying homage to the icons of the last 12 months but the channel shows the top trending videos and music videos of South Africa and the World. Our top jam is Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda.
Tumblr Sorts The Year into Categories
As can be expected, Tumblr’s review contains a ton of gifs. We love gifs, so that’s cool. They have, in their own words, “analyzed millions of blogs, billions of posts, and zillions of notes according to a number of factors — total volume of posts and tags (original and reblogged), web traffic, follower growth over time, and more.” These results have been compiled according to various categories for your exploring pleasure. Down the rabbit hole!
Google Ranks Search Trends
Google’s year in search is always interesting. Not only does it show what the zeitgeist is interested in, it gives a clue what they think about it. You can compare global interest against SA’s curiosities, and explore the stories and occasions that created the interest. If you’re more interested in the Google Doodle than the latest search trends, you can always view the last 12 months of those instead.
Seeing as Twitter is about the personalities behind the accounts first and foremost, it makes sense that the #YearonTwitter is reviewed through the perspectives of the people who were in the headlines, and the moments that were making them. Choose between Moments or Perspectives and watch the year break down into #hashtags and the tweets that used them. Like the time Benedict Cumberpatch photobombed U2 at the #Oscars.
Let’s zoom-in on the Benedict/U2 moment, shall we? #Oscars pic.twitter.com/ILZV7pgdOS
— Yahoo Celebrity UK (@YahooCelebUK) March 3, 2014
Instagram… Is Too Busy
Instagram had a big year. They cracked 300 million users, released an amazing timelapse video app called Hyperlapse and added new filters for the first time in what felt like forever (it was two years). They have yet to put out a “Year in Review”, but when you’re that busy it’s understandable. In the meantime, please enjoy TIME’s 29 Instagrams That Defined the World (it’s quite heavy) and Huffington Posts Top 14 Celebrity Moments of the Year (they don’t specify what their criteria is, but claim Instagram staff were involved in the selection). If you REALLY want something showcasing your year, check our Iconosquare. They are making video summaries of members’ Instagram accounts highlighting the 5 most popular images from 2014.
The most Viral Commercials
Adweek has a list of the top 20 most viral ads based on stats supplied by Unruly (you can download the whitepaper and read a more in-depth breakdown here). Top spot with near 6 million shares goes to… Shakira! Predictably, several of the top spots go to creative released during the World Cup.
Pinterest Looks Forward
Not everyone is interested in looking back. Pinterest have taken this on board and stood out from the crowd, foregoing a recap in favour of using 2014’s metrics to predict trends in 2015. They’ve compiled it into a board (of course they have) so get pinning. Maybe 2015 is the year you actually turn one of those pinned items into a reality!
Awesome
Of course, if you’d simply like to see a mishmash of amazing, then watch Luc Bergeron cram excerpts from 233 videos into 6 minutes of AWESOME.
Speaking of 6 minutes, the Danthology (LOVE that!) is probably almost up, but don’t worry, this post should have left you with plenty to keep you occupied. Or, you can get back to work, like we are.