The Power of YouTube

I was looking at the most recent batch of Movers and Shakers today, and I noticed a site among the top three that is not in any way affiliated with March Madness. Once it caught my attention, I felt like digging in to see what was going on.

The site is Avaaz.org and they're into global social justice issues, organizing online, that sort of thing. They have an international staff of campaigners, so they have a decent Traffic Rank. But while they usually are in the fifty thousands, the past week they've been going below ten thousand. Why the bump? Did they purchase ads on coffee sleeves or run a commercial during a college basketball game recently?

No. They entered a contest on YouTube and won an award for best video in the political category. On the page where their video "Stop the Clash of Civilizations" is announced the winner, there's a link to their website.

Well, congrats to them for record traffic to their site, and good timing on the win given their current actions regarding the recent unrest over Tibet.

Madness, I Tell You

Looking at the graph of the top three Movers, I'm reminded of how my job in Web metrics has made me (slightly) cooler. There was honestly a time when I had no idea what March Madness was--none at all. I think I occasionally heard it and associated it with springlike things: allergies and short pants.

One glance at this graph (or the previous years' versions of it), and I see two things: something big is happening related to sports; the sport in question is pretty below the radar until March. After one click-through to the sites currently experiencing huge gains in traffic, pretty much anyone who was always picked last for teams in gym class can sigh and say, "Ah, yes, college basketball championship."

Thank you, Alexa, for giving me a clue about the rest of America's obsessions.

Oscars Always a Hit on the Web

Sometimes, when I look at Alexa's Movers and Shakers, I discover some hip new site everyone's clicking on.

And sometimes, I look at the graph and realize, oh, yeah, the Oscars just happened.