'Anchorman' news team recounts year in Yahoo searches
In this video, actor Will Ferrell and friends "report" on the year in Yahoo searches, reprising their roles from the film and its upcoming sequel.
In the video, Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner reprise their roles from 2005's "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," as well as its upcoming sequel "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues." Ferrell and crew recount the most popular Yahoo searches of the year, and it leads to an explanation of the royal baby's super powers, a new Justin Bieber nickname, and a demonstration of twerking.
Some tidbits from Yahoo's actual report: Miley Cyrus, for her twerking escapade at the MTV Video Music Awards this summer, was the top overall search of the year. (And naturally, "what is twerking?" and "define twerking" were the top question and definition-related searches of the year.) The top news-related search was for Jodi Arias, the woman convicted in May of murdering her boyfriend in Phoenix in 2008. Second and third on the list were "Obamacare" and "Boston Marathon bombings."
New this year was a compilation of the biggest trends on Tumblr, which Yahoo acquired for $1.1 billion in May. The most viral Tumblr blog of the year was "Reasons My Son is Crying," where a father post pictures of his son with captions that explain, well, why he is crying.
Yahoo has been compiling trends in top searches since 2001. "This year is a return to form," in terms of celebrity and pop cultural searches, Yahoo Web trend analyst Vera Chan said during a conference call with reporters earlier Monday. Last year's list, she said, was full of heavier election-related searches.
Ferrell has been on a tear promoting his new movie, showing up in character everywhere from car commercials to actual North Dakota newscasts. Tech companies using celebrity tie-ins is nothing new. Yahoo did the same sort of thing with actress Jennifer Laurence and director Francis Laurence of the film "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" in October, when the two participated in a live Tumblr Q&A session with fans.
Of course, the "Anchorman" video with Yahoo is just a one-off promotional stunt. But at the very least, it is just another reminder of Yahoo's fondness for the bright lights these days. In terms of long-term moves, the company has been cozying up to big-named talent, including Katie Couric, who the company snagged from ABC News. Yahoo has also reportedly been in talks with Ryan Seacrest about content ideas. CEO Marissa Mayer has also recently said that "entertaining" is at Yahoo's core.