With 2011 just a couple of weeks away, the time has come for the Internet to take stock of the year that was using the only rubric that matters: Internet searches. You’ve likely already seen this widely circulated video from last week—which rounds up images and video footage relating to the top Google searches from the last year in an effort to pin down the Internet’s favorite ephemeral concept, “the zeitgeist”—but it’s a good reminder that this earthquake-and-oil-spill-filled year kinda sucked.
For those who prefer their year-end zeitgeist surveys a little less real-world and little more Internet-world, there’s YouTube’s list of the top 10 most-viewed videos of 2010 (excluding major-label music videos, which get their own list here).
The top 10 list accounts for more than 280 million of YouTube’s 700 billion views this year, and proves once again that teenage girls and bored office drones are the driving force behind YouTube. Dubious congratulations go to Antoine Dodson and Double Rainbow Guy, the Internet’s official mascots for 2010.