The top rising search on YouTube this afternoon is "tom hanks univision," a reference to the actor's amusing appearance Tuesday on the Univision program "Despierta America" where he was promoting his new movie Larry Crowne.
Univision has a number of segments posted from Hanks' appearance on the show including twosit-downs and a cooking segment. But the clip that seems to be drawing the most attention is the one of his very ridiculous assistance during the weather forecast:
The E3 trade show -- aka Electronic Entertainment Expo -- officially kicks off tomorrow, but a series of pre-expo announcement videos have already begun spreading following Microsoft's press conference today.
The top rising search on YouTube this afternoon is "halo 4 trailer" as the first preview for the latest installment of the super-popular game saw its release. (Interesting note: when Halo: Reach hit stores in September and the epic "Deliver Hope" trailer was released, that game became the top rising search of the entire month.)
While that video spread quickly via social media, preview videos of upcoming releases for Microsoft's Kinect device were also among top shared videos on Twitter. In particular, peeks at the new Star Wars game as well as "Kinect Sports" are seeing lots of interest:
The top rising search on YouTube this afternoon is for "Macho Man Randy Savage" who reportedly passed away in a car accident earlier today. Slim Jim commercials aside, searches for some of his most famous matches are among the top related terms.
The WWE has a number of classic clips posted on its channel of Savage in his prime:
But we're also seeing a large number of reaction/tribute videos being posted to the site by fans of all ages. Hundreds of videos related to the famous wrestler have been uploaded today.
Many discuss his most classic matches and rivalries as well as the quirky place he held as a pop culture personality. Here are two examples of the many that have been posted:
Likely thanks to two popular clips, searches for the word "lacrosse" on YouTube have been -- relatively -- at their highest point in recent years. Two weeks ago, a Washington D.C.-area high school lacrosse player hit a full-field "miracle" shot that quickly went viral and has since picked up over 1.7 million views to become one of the most viewed lacrosse videos of all time on YouTube.
This week, a trick play from the University of Maryland also drew a ton of attention probably contributing to the continued rise in searches for the sport. As you can see in the chart below, there's a general swelling in relative searches during the regular season each year, but there's been an abnormal spike this week.
Last week was a major week for news involving the President, with Obama delivering two starkly contrasting, yet incredibly popular speeches.
We already analyzed how popular his correspondents' dinner remarks have been -- and since then, they've been viewed roughly 8 million times total. The official White House version of his address on the death of Osama bin Laden, which he delivered the following night, has been viewed over 5 million times.
Today, we've gone back and looked at last week's search data for some perspective. Searches around the world for "Obama" on YouTube so far this month were at their relative highest since January 2009, when the President was inaugurated. The term "bin laden" is the top rising U.S. search on YouTube of the past thirty days, and if you look back at searches for "osama" globally over the past few years, weekly interest essentially charts like a hockeystick:
In the United States, searches for "osama" spiked higher than searches for "tsunami" did in March, making this one of biggest news stories in terms of U.S. interest so far this year.
First Lady Michelle Obama and her dance moves were a top rising search on YouTube today as Tuesday footage of her from a D.C.-area school for the "Let's Move" initiative to combat childhood obesity spread around pop-culture sites. In particular, it was her performance of "the dougie" dance that made the most headlines and appears to have sparked the most conversation.
The dougie became a major YouTube trend last year, and is now pretty much a staple. A search for "the dougie" will return tens of thousands of results. The chart below shows changes for weekly relative search interest in the term "dougie" on YouTube dating back to 2008:
(May take a moment to load in full.)
If you mouse over the points, you'll see when Cali Swag District's official video for the song "Teach Me How to Dougie" was posted and when NBA star John Wall's unique intro occurred. But you'll also notice that some popular videos of the dance long pre-date those.
By far, this morning's top rising search on YouTube is for footage of Prince William and Kate Middleton's Buckingham Palace balcony kiss early this morning following the pair's nuptials at Westminster Abbey. Behind the big kiss -- which many of the top spiking search terms are related to -- were searches for the royal couple's wedding vows.
A rebroadcasted stream and more are available at The Royal Channel on YouTube.
Following news of her passing earlier today, the top rising search on YouTube is for singer-songwriter "Phoebe Snow." Her name as well as her famous 1974 song "Poetry Man" were both seeing large spikes in search interest.
A YouTube playlist of her music is available here. Here are a few of her fans who've posted performances of her songs:
The top rising search on YouTube this afternoon is the phrase "tornado stole my hamburger," a reference to a news clip that's getting passed around pop-culture blogs today.
As we know, one of the all-time most popular viral categories on YouTube is the unusual-local-news-interview genre. The latest entry comes from Jackson Mississippi's WAPT-TV and tornado victim Eric Hubbard, a local resident who reportedly rode the storm out in his car.
Rebecca Black's "Friday" video has been dominating the pop-culture conversation over the past week, having drawn over 40 million views in roughly 10 days and inspiring hundreds of parodies and covers. But March has been a month of some major global and national trends, so we looked into the data to discover which were the largest.
Three big events drew lots of search interest in the United States this month. The top three rising U.S. searches on YouTube of the last 30 days were for Charlie Sheen, the Japanese tsunami, and Ms. Black. Below we've graphed relative searches for "friday," "sheen," and "japan" for the past month or so in the United States. And we've added "oscars" as a point of comparison.
The spike that we saw around the earthquake and tsunami in Japan was the highest overall of the group, though "Friday" also saw a huge spike last week. "Sheen" did not spike as high, but ballooned over a longer stretch. "Oscars," which is a pretty major event, is somewhat dwarfed by the others.
When you open up the searches to include international (but English-language) terms, the disparity between "japan" and "friday" spikes is greater.
Even if it was a mostly American phenomenon, just how big is/was the Rebecca Black craze?
As far as pop-stars go, "Friday" has drawn more views since March 11 -- the day the video first took off -- than all of Lady Gaga's videos combined over the same time period. While she didn't top Justin Bieber during that time-frame, she was close. And she did draw more views than Rihanna and Eminem, both of whom recently joined the one billion view club.
Every morning, we comb through YouTube's search data to investigate top spiking search terms and the videos they lead to:
charlie sheen interview - Actor Charlie Sheen, who has given some unique interviews of late, is one of today's rising searches.
marshmallow people - This surreal short from yesterday's 4 at 4 AM is still among the morning's top spiking searches.
born this way music video - Perhaps unsurprisingly, searches are on the rise for Lady Gaga's new music video. (It's drawn 2 million views in roughly one day.)
what are words - Chris Medina may have been cut from American Idol, but there's been a rise in interest in his first single.
Every morning, we comb through YouTube's search data to investigate top spiking search terms and the videos they lead to:
new zealand earthquake - Searches are spiking this morning for footage from the earthquake in New Zealand. You can view CitizenTube's curated collection here.
asu fight - There is a rise in searches today for footage of this brawl supposedly in the Alabama State University cafeteria. (Contains profanity.)
undertaker and triple h return - The return of The Undertaker last night has led to a rise in searches for these WWE wrestling stars.
angry birds cake - One of today's 4@4 AM videos is also a rising search this morning.
Every morning, we comb through YouTube's search data to investigate top spiking search terms and the videos they lead to:
premios lo nuestro 2011 - The morning's top rising search is for the Latin music Lo Nuestro Awards, which Univision has posted on YouTube.
maria aragon - The Canadian 10-year-old has become an overnight sensation and is again a top spiking search term after her Lady Gaga cover caught the singer's attention.
radiohead lotus flower - This new Radiohead video is one of this morning's rising searches.
hold it against me video - The new Britney Spears music video, featured in today's 4@4 AM.
Every morning, we comb through YouTube's search data to investigate top spiking search terms and the videos they lead to:
lara logan - Searches are up for the CBS correspondent who was attacked last week in Cairo.
exercise workouts - There are few dominant spiking search terms today, and some generic searches are near the top, like searches for workout videos.
very super famous - This quickly rising sketch music video, which was created by Canadian YouTube Comedian John Lajoie, is drawing some interest this morning.
Every morning, we comb through YouTube's search data to investigate top spiking search terms and the videos they lead to:
the rock returns 2011 - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson announced his return to Wrestlemania creating a spike in searches.
lassi hurskainen - College trick shot videos continue to draw attention, with this compilation by UNC-Asheville's goalkeeper seeing a jump in searches.
heather russell - This 10-year-old singer is seeing a rise in interest today for her music.
Every morning, we comb through YouTube's search data to investigate top spiking search terms and the videos they lead to:
esperanza spalding - This jazz performer and her music are stirring a lot of interest this morning after an "unexpected" Grammy win for Best New Performer last evening.
andre 3000 happy valentines day - On the rise today are searches for the song "Happy Valentine's Day," by Outkast's Andre 3000.
herbie hancock imagine - The star-heavy cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" was a also surprise winner at last night's Grammy's.
love stinks j. geils band - This 1980 hit is also seeing a small spike today.
