4 in the Afternoon: Shark Fire

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Surfers Save Shark	Shell Singapore Fire	Kindle Fire	Soldiers Playing D&D

1. A group of surfers save a small, stranded Great White. As seen on Daily Wh.at.
2. Footage of a fire at Shell's largest refinery, which is situated in Pulau Bukom.
3. Amazon released its new tablet computer today sparking the new device to be a top rising search on YouTube.
4. This 2009 video is suddenly saw a spike in views as it was featured on Reddit.

Chris Rene Already a YouTube Sensation

It was just last Thursday night that United States' edition of "The X Factor" aired the audition of Chris Rene, and in the few days since, interest on YouTube has been very high in the 28-year-old. Rene, 70 days sober post-rehab, performed a self-written song called, "Young Homie."

"Chris Rene" is the top rising search in the U.S. over the past seven days and, interestingly, searches hit their highest peak on Monday. The video of Rene's performance, which was posted by "The X Factor," has been seen over 2.6 million times and is averaging over a quarter of a million views per day.



Even though the episode is less than a week old, YouTube musicians have already begun posting covers of the song. Here's a selection of five in a playlist:

4 in the Morning: Paper Plane

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Paper Money	Show Me Where Ya Noms At	Typhoon Pedring	Plane in Bin

1. Blind Film Critic Tommy Edison continues his series explaining the everyday obstacles he encounters. As seen on VVVs.
2. The host of popular webshow "My Drunk Kitchen" makes a rap song. As seen on Laughing Squid.
3. A billboard collapsed Tuesday during the typhoon in Manila, Philippines. More video at CitizenTube.
4. Can this gentleman control a paper plane with his mind? As seen on Reddit.

4 in the Afternoon: Neighbor S'more

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Flying Through a Mountain	Minecraft Neighbor	Epic S'More	Insane Office Escape

1. Wingsuit glider Jeb Corliss flies through a mountain cave in this Most Shared video.
2. A Trending short film about what it would be like to live next-door to a Minecraft character.
3. EpicMealTime's latest creation is a giant gross s'more. As seen on VVVs.
4. A wild, globally-popular music video for the song "Stampede" by Biting Elbows. As seen on Slash Film.

Cold War of Cute Cats (or how I stopped worrying and learned to love adorable feline videos)

This post was authored by Bailey Johnson of CBSNews.com's The Feed for a YouTube Trends series exploring viral video phenomena.

We live in a brave new world of viral videos. Cute cats, once the sole domain of the U.S. and Japan, have gone global. We see a lot of videos over at The Feed, and we’ve been struck recently by the amount of content coming out of Russia. As with so many other things in the world today, America is losing its competitive edge. We cannot allow a viral video gap!

Seriously though, adorable pets are universal, and it’s great to watch what appears to be a viral renaissance taking place in the Motherland. According to YouTube Trends data, the number of videos on YouTube with the Russian words for 'cat' in the title uploaded in September is already double the number uploaded in September of 2010.

Did you see the incredible Spider Cat? So did 1.1 million other people.



This video is unusual in that the people are actually speaking Russian. (It’s also usual because that cat climbs up a freaking wall, but I digress.) Most of the pet clips we see from the Ruskies hit the viral sweet spot: they’re short, sweet, and (other than the sound of the animal stars) silent. Ignoring the Cyrillic in the titles, you’d never know where these videos came from.



Then again, maybe part of the renaissance is happening on this side of the Atlantic. Maybe those of us in the States are finally taking notice of the Russian phenomenon. This video of a cat having printer problems is similar to another video from 2008 that racked up 2.2 million views.



Whatever the case, it’s always funny seeing cats fall down, I mean, it’s great to see that the things that bind us together (watching cats fall down) outweigh the things that tear us apart. Pretty deep thought for a couple of cute cats, huh?

Bailey Johnson is an editor at CBSNews.com's The Feed. He spends a lot of time watching other people's pets.

Today's Trend analysis provided by

4 in the Morning: Lightsaber Slinky

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Lightsaber Fight	Terraced City	Someone Like You	Slinky Drop

1. Numerous videos were uploaded of what appears to be a light saber battle in New York City for which 1,000 people showed up. As seen on Gothamist.
2. Timelapse video of Amy Shackleton's unique painting technique. As seen on Gizmodo.
3. Singers Charlie Puth and Emily Luther enter the Perez Hilton cover contest. As seen on BuzzFeed.
4. Slow motion video of the phenomenon when someone drops a slinky. As seen on VVVs.

Wall Street Protests, Arrests This Weekend

80 people were reportedly arrested over the weekend during Wall Street protests in which demonstrators occasionally got into physical altercations with police offers who were on the scene.

A search for videos tagged "wall street" in the past seven days will deliver thousands of results and some of the most-viewed and -shared clips of the weekend were footage shot on the street in New York City Saturday. We've collected a handful of those videos in this playlist below:

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

4 in the Afternoon: Sweat Balloon

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Sweat Interview	Thailand Flood	Balloon to the Face	Cardboard Warfare 2

1. This post-game interview with RCD Espanyol (Barcelona) soccer star Walter Pandiani has spread of Spain to the U.S., where receiving heavy sports-blog pickup. Other viewers advise that you skip forward once per minute keeping an eye on his shirt.
2. Flood video said to have been shot yesterday in the Lop Buri region of Thailand.
3. A new experiment in the "Smarter Every Day" series. As seen on BuzzFeed.
4. Last June's Cardboard Warfare from pwnisher drew 4.7 million views. Now, they're back with a 24 minute sequel that's one of the weekend's Most Shared videos.

Moving Images from Space

One of the most popular trending videos of last week was this stunning footage compiled from photographs taken by the International Space Station of Earth at night. The images, which are made publicly available via NASA's website, were translated into video by yesterday2221 and that dazzling clip has now been seen over 4.7 million times in the past eight days, drawing as many as 1.7 million views from around the world last Monday.



The clip has since inspired a number of other space enthusiasts to create similar videos using NASA imagery of our planet. For example, here's a video depicting the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights).



NASA has posted these types of composite videos as well as other footage from the ISS in the past. Most notably, imagery of major storms affecting the United States:

4 in the Morning: Mace Kicks

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Pumped Up Kicks	Wall Street Mace	Tiny Bear Fight	Backyard Bellagio

1. This performance by a dancer named Nonstop was one of the weekend's most popular videos.
2. One of our most-viewed videos of the weekend is this clip from the Occupy Wall Street protests in NYC, which appears to depict a group of penned female protestors being maced.
3. This video of a wrestling match between two baby bears captured at Yosemite was posted in July, but is just taking off. As seen on SayOMG.
4. HTH Pool Care posts this swimming pool recreation of the famed Las Vegas Bellagio fountain. As seen on Neatorama.

Latest Trending Videos: Week of September 24

Emotional moments, tricycles, Ferraris, and beer : here are 10 of this week's top trending videos from YouTube Trends:

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)

4 in the Afternoon: Biker Cereal

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Biker Prank	Father and Baby	Dubstep Cereal	Drawing Paper

1. Carlsberg stages a movie theater prank in Europe using a room full of tough-looking bikers. As seen on Buzzfeed.
2. A father, his son, and some piano. As seen on The Feed.
3. UK cereal manufacturer Weetabix capitalizes on the increasing popularity of dubstep. As seen on Videogum.
4. An instructional time-lapse from author/illustrator Mark Crilley. As seen on BoY.

4 in the Morning: G Bro

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

G	Reality Hits You Hard Bro	Stalin's Skyscraper	Watermelon Carving

1. Sesame Street tackles Glee in their latest alphabet parody. As seen on bwe.tv.
2. The latest viral clip from the Autotune the News team. As seen on VVVs.
3. Frightening video of a man climbing Red Gates Administrative Building in Moscow. As seen on Gizmodo.
4. The most unique of fruit-related skills. As seen on Daily Wh.at.

Visualizing Your Questions to the GOP Candidates

Nearly 19,000 questions were submitted on YouTube for Thursday's Google and Fox News Republican Primary debate in Florida. More than 100,000 votes were cast to help determine the questions that will be asked of the candidates this evening.

We took those 19,000 questions, which were asked among nine varying categories, and analyzed the words people used when expressing their perspectives and concerns using a tool from Wordle.net. Here's the one for "Government Spending and Debt."

The other eight, as well as the graphic for all the questions, will be available on the Fox News debate channel.

More: See word clouds from your interview with President Obama from earlier this year.

4 in the Afternoon: Hover Owl

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Hoverboard A Cappella	Somebody To Love	Burrowing Owls	Elizabeth Warren

1. Matt Mulholland's voice joins the recent bump in Back to the Future buzz. As seen on Laughing Squid.
2. This Freddie Mercury impersonation is one of our most shared videos.
3. A musical owl-time-lapse from the San Diego zoo. As seen on BuzzFeed.
4. Elizabeth Warren's recent remarks have caused her name to rise to the top of our rising searches. As seen on USAToday.

The Most Popular Taxidermy Ad of the Month

Last Thursday, a local news commercial for a taxidermist named Chuck Testa started quickly spreading among pop-culture and comedy sites, resulting in such a big reaction that Testa produced this response video, which has been trending this week and picked up over 250,000 views:



What is Chuck thanking you for exactly? His tongue-in-cheek TV commercial, which was produced by YouTube popular video producers Rhett and Link, has been viewed nearly 4 million times in the past week:

4 in the Morning: Typewriter Homie

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Red Vs. Blue	Cocktail Typewriter	History of Hair	Young Homie

1. Word is that nearly 4,000 people were involved in this massive dodgeball fight in Utah. As seen on High Definite.
2. A contraption that allows you to create cocktails using a keyboard. As seen on BoingBoing.
3. From Russia comes this stop-motion history of female hairstyles. As seen on Daily Wh.at.
4. This performance on last evening's "X-Factor" quickly resulted in "Chris Rene" becoming a top rising search on YouTube.

4 in the Afternoon: Proven Miracle

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

Proven Leadership	Killer Music Video	North Haven Miracle	If Computer Problems Were Real

1. Rick Perry's latest spot is drawing attention for its drama, cinematography, and Michael Bay-ness. As seen on Hot Air.
2. Adam Ben Ezra reworks the Dexter theme ahead of the new season premiere. As seen on Reddit.
3. A seemingly impossible toss by a quarterback in Connecticut. As seen on Prep Rally.
4. Awkward Spaceship's short explores a computer problems in real life. As seen on BuzzFeed.

On the Scene Footage: Typhoon Roke

As Typhoon Roke made landfall in Japan, residents in the area began documenting and uploading the conditions in their area. A search for "typhoon" in Japanese results in nearly 2,000 videos of various kinds from the past 24 hours.

(Use the arrows to navigate between videos or watch them all here.)



See more at YouTube.com/CitizenTube.

4 in the Morning: Planking Collapse

Twice each day we scan our YouTube metrics as well as websites on the cutting edge of internet culture to discover the most buzzed about videos.

5000 miles 930 people	Kids React to Planking	Russia Building Collapse	Telling Dad I'm Gay

1. Benjamin Jenks took 3000 photos in this stop-motion hitchhiking journey across the United States. As seen on Daily Wh.at. (Shorter version.)
2. The Fine Bros continue their "Kids React" series with the planking phenomenon.
3. This footage of a building collapse in Vladivostok was uploaded in August but has recently drawn attention. Another angle. It had reportedly been evacuated.
4. Tuesday evening's most viewed video in the U.S. More details here.