50 Viral Images The Web Shared In 2010

August 2, 2010 Author Adam Singer In The Social Web

As a perpetual observer/analyzer of what people share and why, it’s fascinating to me to study content that spreads.  As such, I document/bookmark much of the web’s hottest content for my own insight/analysis, but I also share with readers here too.

Images have always been one of the most popular types of content on the web, (even through the popularization of video) and I’m always surprised more marketing and PR folk don’t actively use them as part of their content mixes.

Anyway – to continue to spread inspiration, following are 50 images the web has shared in 2010 (likely not all created in 2010, but were shared this year).

This is the 4th installment of this series, if you’re new to the blog check out the first three – as when taken together you’ll start to notice patterns in the web’s most shared images

If you’re involved in any facet of content marketing, study the archetypes of popular images to gain an understanding of why certain images are sticky and others fall flat.

Captions added to provide context.

Infographics, graphs and charts

Seems simple enough

Geek/Nerd/Dork Venn Diagram

And you wonder why people pirate media

The metric system is apparently too good for the US, Liberia and Burma

What single girls and single guys do on Valentine’s day

Agreed…


(image credit)

Creative Photography

90 degrees can change everything

Bird smile

Couch surfing

Great creative shot

Leaf color spectrum

Nature/animals

Mount Hua, China view from gondola lift

Animal friends

Adventure cat seeks adventure

Looks like a nice place to sleep

Underwater high five

An owl in flight

Beautiful sunrise in Australia

image credit

This could be trouble…

Comics/Humor

Who hasn’t had this experience?

A mistake many live in fear of accidentally committing

Awkward Facebook likes

Compiled by CollegeHumor

Print ad fail

Baby is not pleased

Yeah, what if that!?

What they really mean

The Jobs/Gates comics have taken off as a popular meme

This student clearly went the extra mile

Yahoo answers are regularly trolled – but this is pretty funny even if it’s a setup

I remember these days…

Parody sign protest

(image credit)

Creative Ads

Snake bus wrap

Clever ad by Frontline

Everything Else

Red light status bar – why has this not been invented yet?

(image credit)

Post-it Mega Man

Digital storage progress in perspective

Creative use of multiple desktops

Library in Kansas City made out of books

(image credit)

Someone has a lot of free time on their hands…

Table made out of coins

Clever tattoo

Dark Knight motorcycle

The force is strong with this one

What grooves on a record look like at 100x magnification

Wall of knowledge

When signs get meta

This is part 1 of images shared in 2010 – be sure to check out part two

Unfortunately due to the nature of images being copied/pasted/re-shared, it’s difficult to provide attribute to most images (most are found on image sharing sites with no attribution).  Therefore – if I used one of your images, please give me a shout and I’ll update with attribution.

Don’t miss a thing – subscribe to The Future Buzz RSS or follow me on Twitter to stay at the edge.