Google - Year in Search 2014

In 2014 we searched trillions of times. What do these searches say about us? Explore the Year in Search http://www.google.com/2014 and follow the conversation on #YearInSearch

The 10 Best Viral Videos of 2014

This year was another great one for the DIY art form known as the viral video. Sure, that was partially thanks to ringers like Jimmy Fallon and (the enduringly hilarious) Weird Al, but plenty of 2014’s most infectious laughs still came from amateur auteurs harnessing the awesome power of the Internet. Here are 10 silly web clips from the last 12 months we’re comfortable naming as the objective best, if for no reason other than you’ll probably forget all about this once the next big cat video comes out.

10. Dancing Kid “Goes Full Diva” on Live TV

Since Brendan Jordan’s glorious television debut, the 15-year-old has been on Ellen, The Queen Latifah Show and even modeled for American Apparel. But before all that he was just a fierce, scene-stealing boy voguing his heart out on the local news. God bless you, Diva Kid.

9. Farmer Treats Cows to Trombone Serenade



Some might attribute the popularity of dumb Internet videos to our allegedly shrinking attention spans, but “Serenading the cattle with my trombone (Lorde – Royals)” serves as a compelling counterexample to that theory. A classic slow-burner, the clip rewards viewers for their patience above all else, coming to a immensely satisfying (if not particularly surprising) conclusion.

8. President Obama Visits Between Two Ferns



There isn’t a lot to say about this video of the President and Zach Galifianakis trading barbs on a nearly empty sound stage, other than it was absolutely wonderful. Ostensibly promoting the Affordable Care Act, the exchange managed to make health care reform funny, a feat that surely deserves a spot in the Making Boring Stuff Interesting Hall of Fame.

7. Brian Williams Goes Old School with “Rapper’s Delight”



After taking over The Tonight Show in February, Jimmy Fallon quickly established his place in the late-night television landscape, thanks in large part to web-friendly segments like the one seen above. A later iteration showing the NBC Nightly News anchor rapping “Gin and Juice” may have been just a bit funnier, but this one came first, airing just days into Fallon’s tenure.

6. Old Man Breaks it Down to “Rock Around The Clock”



Almost six months after Dancing Old Guy made his Internet debut, this anonymous old man’s smokin’ moves still amaze. Can you think of a slicker move than dude’s double cane toss? You cannot.

5. “All By Myself” in McCarran International



Heartbreak can be hard, but a long, unexpected layover will crush your soul. This guerrilla video for Céline Dion’s “All By Myself” shot in an empty Las Vegas airport proved as much when it hit the Internet this June, coming out even sadder than the 1996 original.

4. Emma Stone Lip Sync Battles Jimmy Fallon



Of the Fallon-helmed Tonight Show’s recurring bits, none has been bigger than Lip Sync Battles. And of those Lip Sync Battles, none was more celebrated than Fallon’s April showdown with The Amazing Spider-Man’s Emma Stone. Now Lip Sync Battles is being developed as its own spinoff series, surely thanks in no small part to Stone’s scorching rendition of “All I Do is Win” seen above.

3. Weird Al Yankovic – “Word Crimes”



When Weird Al announced his ambitious “eight videos in eight days” plan earlier this year, few could have predicted how well it would pay off, eventually earning Yankovic his first number one record. Arguably the best of these releases (and the most popular by a mile) was the animated video for “Word Crimes,” an ode to grammatical pedantry that managed to partially rehabilitate the super-skeezy smash hit it riffed on.

2. Hero Cat Saves Child From Dog Attack



Lots of cat video stars can be described as cute, but far fewer can be called courageous, like the brave feline seen protecting a four-year-old boy from a random dog attack in this much-watched clip. Tara the Cat rocketed to superstardom soon after the amazing security cam footage hit the web, debuting at 22 on Friskies’ authoritative list of the 50 Most Influential Cats.

1. Apparently Kid



Apparently, we think this was the best viral video of 2014. Because apparently, this interview with 5-year-old Noah Ritter has all the classic elements of a great YouTube offering, apparently including a cute kid, a local news broadcast and an easy to remember catchphrase. And apparently, the insanely popular clip has since been viewed over 17 million times. Apparently.

The Who Announce Virtual Reality App

This year, the Who, one of the greatest rock bands of all time, celebrate their 50th anniversary. They’re marking the occasion by releasing the new collection The Who Hits 50!, which includes the not-good new song “Be Lucky.” And they’ve also announced plans for something that’s both backward- and forward-looking in some profoundly weird ways. The much-hyped virtual-reality headseat Oculus Rift will apparently be ready for commercial sale next year, and when it drops, the Who will have an app for it all ready to go. Before we see the Oculus Rift version, the app will be available as a smartphone and tablet app for Android and iOS. As The Guardian reports, the band and developer Immersive have teamed up to build a 3D world out of the band’s iconography, including its logo and old photos and images. Apparently, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to buy the band’s music while wandering around this environment. I hope this thing sells some music, since I can’t think of any other reason for it to exist.

Transparent Machines (Short Film)

beeple’s provocative short film, “Transparent Machines,” posits that if we want to blame anyone for lack of privacy online, we should start with ourselves.

We are the Transparent Machines™ | fullscreen please |

Our society is obsessed with the conflicting concepts of transparency and privacy. We are “outraged” by the actions of the NSA, yet continue to willfully upload more and more of our personal information to Facebook and Google. This film explores the contradictory nature of our actions and beliefs regarding transparency.

directed by: beeple

sound design: standingwave / soundcloud.com/standingwave
music: hecq - pulverized / hecq.de
voice over: rachel salaman

Watch Best Coast’s Commercial For Microsoft Windows 8

Last night, I was doing Google News searches for “windows” — as in, “Should I put big Xs on my windows with duct tape, so I’m not killed in my sleep when this hurricane makes landfall and decimates New York City with 500-mph, glass-shattering, gale-force winds?” However, my search was thwarted with news of last Friday’s launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8, which was slightly less urgent, for my purposes. Nonetheless, the Windows promotional campaign rolls on, and it includes a clip featuring Best Coast (thus leading astray my hurricane-related searches including the terms “windows” and “coast”). The commercial is set to the band’s “The Only Place,” and intercuts Best Coast video with Windows 8 features, ostensibly leading one to imagine the ways in which Bethany and Bobb might engage with the user interface.

Introducing Google Input Tools

http://google.com/inputtools

The power to communicate with friends or family in your language is now at your fingertips with Google Input Tools. Available for select Google services, Chrome, Android devices and Windows. Stay tuned for more languages on more platforms coming soon.

Guardian open journalism: Three Little Pigs

This advert for the Guardian's open journalism, screened for the first time on 29 February 2012, imagines how we might cover the story of the three little pigs in print and online. Follow the story from the paper's front page headline, through a social media discussion and finally to an unexpected conclusion

"Oh, Internet" - A love song.

You may recognize the star of this video from her other web series My Drunk Kitchen, but this time around Hannah Hart has put down the bottle and picked up a microphone to tell the world just how much she loves the internet.

Oh, Internet-A love song began as a song against SOPA but became so much more, and now Hannah has a new career option to fall back on, since becoming a chef clearly isn’t an option.

–via Geeks Are Sexy

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet

Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! - fightforthefuture.org/pipa

PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement."

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that's for a fix that won't work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.

The 10 Best Viral Videos of 2011

Each year, the Internet gives us countless new ways to bring productivity to a grinding halt, most often in the form of WTFs, LOLs and FAILs. 2011 was no exception, producing some of the most awesome, annoying, catchy and otherwise adorable videos. Here are our 10 favorites:

10. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Two
The original Marcel the Shell with Shoes On video pitter-pattered her tiny way into our hearts last year with its droll, introspective examination of life on the tiny scale. The sequel taps into that same vein of comedy, the one that makes us love “Parks and Recreation” so much, this time as Marcel explains the hardships of life as a shell.

9. Official Ojai Valley Taxidermy TV Commercial
The Chuck Testa video burned through the life-cycle of a meme faster than ever before, starting at instant classic, hitting critical mass and finally settling in overused anguish all in the span of a few days. The video itself was an exercise in viral marketing, having been created by Youtube personalities Rhett and Link for their IFC show Commercial Kings.

8. Songify This: Can’t Hug Every Cat

Oh, Internet. What would you be without teary-eyed cat lovers? Thanks to the Gregory Brothers (you know, the kids behind Autotune the News and the Bed Intruder Song) this eHarmony online dating video transformed into a catchy, kitty-fueled tear-jerker. It’s a sad tale, she loves cats so much, but she can’t hug every cat.

7. Madeon – Pop Culture

17-year-old French pop-mashup prodigy Madeon took the Internet by storm with his live mashup “Pop Culture,” seamlessly blending samples from 39 different tracks into this three-minute pop-mash paradise.

6. 3-Way (The Golden Rule)

Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island musical-comedy SNL spinoff very much exemplifies the term “hit or miss.” The difference between a miss and a hit? Turns out, it’s Justin Timberlake. Samberg and Timberlake’s characters from the original “Dick in a Box” skit return, this time to indulge in a Summer-lovin’ fueled Lady Gaga sandwich. Remember, with a honey in the middle there’s some leeway.

5. Neil Patrick Harris’ 2011 Tony Awards Opening Number

Barney Stinson may be one of our favorite on-screen characters, but his real-life counterpart Neil Patrick Harris is just as awesome. NPH opened this year’s Tony Awards with this spectacular musical number entitled “Broadway: It’s not just for gays anymore.”

4. Trim

This video popped up on Reddit a few months ago with a simple headline: “My friend wanted to shave his amazing beard. I said ‘okay, but let us shave it in style.’" The result is this 43-second video of a man transforming before our eyes from a skinhead to a mountain man, pausing at pirate, punk, biker and more on the way.

3. Sexy Sax Man Careless Whisper Prank feat. Sergio Flores

“Hey play that George Michael song real quick!” “It’s okay, he’s with sexysaxmansaxograms.com” “Sorry guys, this is saxophone superstar Sergio Flores.” This video prank from Youtuber “Mike Diva” features self-proclaimed sexy sax man Sergio Flores skillfully serenading scores of shoppers and students alike with his sexy saxograms. George Michael would be proud.

2. The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger

There was a moment earlier this month as I sat watching the 2011 SEC Championship football game, when I thought to myself, are the announcers really discussing a Youtube video about a badass honey badger right now? Their reason was to reference the nickname given to LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu, inspired by the video in question. It was in that moment I realized just how popular the Honey Badger had become. Watch the video and you too will understand just how badass the Honey Badger is.

1. Nyan Cat

Of all the memes and viral videos of 2011, none have seen the instant popularity and ubiquity of Nyan Cat. The formula: an animated cat, a pop-tart for a body, flying through space with a rainbow trail, all set to a repetitive, mind-meltingly catchy song. The result? Cuteness overload, and more than 52 million Youtube views of the original video alone, not to mention countless spin-offs and parodies. We welcome our adorable kitten overlords.

Dishonorable Mention: Rebecca Black’s “Friday”

This year’s dishonorable mention belongs to none other than Rebecca Black and her horrifically catchy video “Friday.” The lyrics are abysmal, the music cringe-inducing, the video poorly-produced, yet we know every damn word.

Via: Pastemagazine.

Introducing Google Music

There's another way to buy, share and listen to music. Try it now at http://music.google.com.

Google Launches Google Music
Features MP3 store, free cloud storage, sharing on Google+

More than six months after the launch of Music Beta by Google, the internet giant's Google Music has officially launched, featuring a new mp3 store linked to their cloud-based storage service. The company made the announcement at an event in L.A. yesterday that featured a performance by Drake.

The online shop, which is part of Android Market, functions like the iTunes store or Amazon. It allows users to share one free play of purchased songs with their friends on Google+, Google's social networking service. As The New York Times reports, Warner Music Group is the only major label that has not reached an agreement with Google Music to sell their catalog yet. As Billboard points out, Google Music also includes a service that allows independent artists to sell their music directly to customers.

Google Music allows users to store their music collections online, for free, and access them from any computer, as well as through Android devices, "without the hassle of wires or syncing." Users can upload 20,000 songs free of charge, in addition to Android Market purchases. Google Music will also offer personalized music recommendations as well as editorial content emphasizing music discovery.

Life In A Day (Full length video of movie)

Life In A Day is a historic film capturing for future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.

Executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.

Introducing Galaxy Nexus. Simple, beautiful, beyond smart

Galaxy Nexus is the next generation of Nexus devices co-developed by Samsung and Google. Nexus combines innovative hardware with the newest version of Android, 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, and the latest Google mobile services.

Internet Story

Written & Directed by Adam Butcher

Produced by Ed Moline

Voices
Shaun French
Duncan Wigman

Flash Animation
Jonathan Harris

Sound & Music Composition
Blair Mowat

Additional Web Design
Charlie Gentle

@AdamButcherFilm
adam-butcher.co.uk/​internet-story
imdb.com/​title/​tt1679215/​

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Spanish Subs)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - Act I (Spanish Subs)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - Act II (Spanish Subs)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - Act III (Spanish Subs)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 2008 musical tragicomedy miniseries in three acts, produced exclusively for Internet distribution. Filmed and set in Los Angeles, the show tells the story of Dr. Horrible (played by Neil Patrick Harris), an aspiring supervillain; Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), his nemesis; and Penny (Felicia Day), their shared love interest.

The movie was written by writer/director Joss Whedon, his brothers Zack Whedon (a television writer) and Jed Whedon (a composer), and actress Maurissa Tancharoen.

Our Little PostSecret - PostSecret App Trailer - Everybody Has Secrets

Our favorite ad-free Blog (and the largest ad-free blog in the world), PostSecret.com, has just released their first iOS app! We’re so excited for them, we’ve decided to let you in on OUR little secret: To celebrate the app release, we’re giving away not one, not twooo, but three Postsecret books! (Insert wild rejoicing, fanfares, angelic singing, etc!)

Go check out what all the hubbub is about over on the PostSecret app page down yonder. You can also watch the embedded video below or just go download it now from iTunes at this link here.

Meantime, if you want a chance to win one of the three (we repeat: three!) books, here’s what you need to do:

1) Leave a comment on this post telling us which PostSecret book you want and why.
2) Be sure to comment using your correct e-mail address so we can contact you should you win
3) Take a load off. Relax. Chill out. Lately we’ve been recommending Mountain Dew and baked jalapeno poppers.

Simple right? So whachya waitin’ for? Support our favorite free blog by downloading the app! Enter our contest! Crack open a Dew! We’ll leave the contest open for one whole week. Check back next Sunday night for the winners!

The New Pornographers Make “Moves” For T-Mobile

Last night while watching something on TV (Stewart or Colbert or Breaking Bad are my only options these days, so one of those) I heard a lady rhapsodizing about T-Mobile’s “best deal ever,” and then heard that sermon paired with an unreasonably catchy jingle that reminded me of the New Pornos’ “Moves.” Turns out it was the New Pornos’ “Moves.” We all need to put food on our families, you know, and commercials are one way songwriters do that these days. No problem. The last time this happened with this band it was “The Bleeding Heart Show” and the University Of Phoenix, which Carl Newman was compelled to defend by saying:

It’s a university, or a school, and it might be a crappy school, but it seems like letting a crappy school use your song is probably better than letting the best business use your song.

Who knows where T-Mobile stands on the spectrum of best and worst businesses, but while we’re quoting A.C.’s last stance, let’s also include this salient bit:

We’re just trying to get by in this world. When you play music for so long and don’t make any money, and people start offering you money for things that involve no effort on your part, you start going, ‘I’ll do that.’”

They did that:

Voice Search With Google Chrome

You can now talk instead of type to search on Google All you need is Google Chrome 11 or higher and a built-in or attached microphone. It makes searching words you're not sure how to spell quicker and easier. You can search long queries just by talking.

Anatomy of a Computer Virus

An infographic dissecting the nature and ramifications of Stuxnet, the first weapon made entirely out of code. This was produced for Australian TV program HungryBeast on Australia's ABC1

Direction and Motion Graphics: Patrick Clair
Written by: Scott Mitchell

Introducing the Chromebook

Chromebooks are built and optimized for the web, so you get a faster, simpler and more secure experience without all the headaches of ordinary computers. Take a look: http://www.google.com/chromebook