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.

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