2010 Year in Review: Justin Bieber and the Weirdly Named Apple Product

For would be authors out there, that title might just sell (despite the rather corny, if not awkward, phrasing of such) if 2010's status updates and searches were taken into consideration. Across all platforms of internet giants, Justin Bieber and the iPad managed to squeeze itself into the consciousness of users having been in 2010's top 10 status updates, tweets, and searches. Oh, what would 2010 have been without these two.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo recently released their year end reviews of what got mentioned the most and what got searched the most in 2010 with interesting and mixed results. So, what did we do in 2010?

We shared news (and acted on it). 2010 had us talking about events that made headlines the world over, such as the BP Oil Spill (#1 in Trending Topics and Yahoo!) and the Haiti Earthquake (#4 in Trending Topics and #5 in Memology). Yahoo claims that it’s the first time that a news story has taken the No. 1 spot. Despite such news not appearing in Google’s Zeitgeist, the Haiti earthquake made waves among Google users as Google claims that “donate to Haiti” was the fastest rising humanitarian aid query in 2010. We were the ones who weren’t fooled by BP’s attempts of cover up (from the press release of Photoshopped images of their workstation to the ban on photos taken from the Gulf) and we knew better than to be mum about it. Certainly, we did not just make ourselves aware of such news. We went out and did something!

We rejoiced at triumphs (and were united by it). We watched closely as drama unfolded right before our eyes and we knew we just had to spread the good news to everyone. The rescue efforts for those trapped in the mine collapse in Chile had us glued to our social networks so much that Facebook claims that keyword use of “miners/mineros” (#8 in Memology) leading to the final rescue spiked 33 times – one for each miner – with the biggest spike during the final rescue! Plus, who could forget the World Cup (#2 in Memology, Trending Topics, and Yahoo!) when we rooted for our own teams and made heroes out of soccer players and, guess what, Pulpo Paul (or Paul the Octopus - #10 in Trending Topics). We even shared the fascination over the Vuvuzela (#5 in Trending Topics). And, I dare say that Justin Beiber (#3 in Zeitgeist, #6 in Memology, #8 in Trending Topics and Yahoo!) might just be the triumph that we lauded (and even giddily gushed over) the most as we tuned into the life of a pop star that started from YouTube and ended up trumping all other mainstream artists the likes of Nicki Minaj (#4 in Zeitgeist), Katy Perry (#7 in Zeitgeist), and Britney Spears (#10 in Yahoo).

We dreamed big dreams (and looked forward to achieving it). Apple and Google had us salivating for their latest creations in 2010 and it kept us talking (and sometimes sourgraping) about the iPhone 4 (#4 in Memology, #6 in Yahoo!), the iPad (#2 in Zeitgeist, #4 in Memology, #6 in Trending Topics), and Android (#7 in Trending Topics). But, more than that, 2010 fuelled our more personal desires, thanks in part to B.o.B.’s hit single “Airplanes” (#9 in Memology) which had us pretending that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars and wishing on them just to see what it could bring us in 2011 (#10 in Memology).

Search on this 2011, everyone!
*This post is based on press releases by Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Google. For more insights and drill downs on the matter, visit their respective year in review posts (or any variation of said phrase) in the following links: Facebook Memology, Twitter Year in Review, Yahoo Year in Review, and Google Zeitgeist. +This post is part of the 2010 Year in Review series, a week-long series of blog posts dedicated to reviewing what the world was up to in 2010 in terms of social media and... other things. I'll get back to you on that by the end of this week.

MEniverse: Globe Puts ME in the Center

I have a love-hate relationship with my Globe Tattoo plug-it ever since I had it though I've yet to decide on what emotion weighs more. It was me during my most intimate moments online (and not the type that you are thinking right now, perv) - blogging, Facebooking, and trying to cram a report or two as time passes by. As such, it took me some time to conclude that my patience has run dry on waiting for that ray of light, that ever-elusive spike in my download speed every time I fire up Google Chrome. Once, twice, but rarely three times, I'd rejoice over a YouTube video fully loaded or an online radio station streamed. But, with so much of that, I knew how to game the system - or at least that's how it appeared to be.

I surfed during the wee hours of the night and during the early parts of the morning when my kbps, if not Mbps, are all shooting to the stars like crazy and my TweetDeck is silent. I squatted at the edge of my bed, never in the middle or near the wall, as my laptop seared indistinct red blotches into my thighs. I enjoyed the mild discomforts of bad posture and bad breath as I huffed and puffed to have my fix of the online world.

But, all that changed yesterday when that world came tumbling down all because my Globe Tattoo connection went kaput. It took me more than three hours of shifting my weight from one leg to the other, tumbling around every imaginable corner of my bed, and pacing back and forth my house just to get that increasingly evasive signal. And when I did, I quickly jumped on the chance to inform everyone else (simply because I am a narcissistic person hungry for attention like that) and what better way to do so than a post in Facebook which says:



Obviously, that little status of mine automatically got posted in Globe Tattoo's wall, as well as in Smart Communications, Inc.'s wall, which I'm guessing had the former's brand handler worried. Why wouldn't he/she be? Their wall is plastered with a barrage of complaints, if not insults (a lot written in jeje, mind you!) about their speed. But amidst the heavy downpour of piercing words, their "Chat Assist Representative" (that's what I gather from reading the wall) was generous enough to send me a PM:


...and immediately, I felt like the world revolved around me. Globe, a 57-billion peso strong company, was listening to me, talking with me, and bowing down to me. "In this YOUNIVERSE, mobile and internet are one and you are at its center". Indeed, their tagline was more than just lip service.

How did Globe Tattoo pull this off? Through people the likes of Faith.

Truth be told, I admire Faith to have to brave through all of the trash talk (a handful of those directed at her) being in the forefront (the pawn, if that were a more fitting term) of handling the brand in its social media efforts. And it's people like Faith that pull me, the consumer, back to the brand, despite messed-up signal and detrimental back posture, just because they know how to connect with me in my own language. And simply because Faith reminds me that behind the seemingly impenetrable force of a huge label, those oiling the machinery behind it are people...

...just like us.