Facebook has revealed the 40 most popular ‘shared’ stories by its US users in 2011, including celebrity deaths, natural disasters, and a father-daughter dance medley video.
Topping the list by the social networking site was a New York Times article showing satellite photos of a section of the Japanese city Sendai before and after March’s devastating tsunami.
The exclusive pictures, which were shared over 600,000 times, give a vivid view of the full destruction caused by the rush of water, and the website included a ‘slider’ to allow easy comparison of both images.
Second most popular was a CNN article on what teachers really want to tell parents, which was posted almost 586,000 times on the social networking site by users.
The top ten also includes a video of a father and his daughter carrying out an intricate dance medley at her wedding and an article about a giant crocodile captured alive in the Philippines.
‘We recently looked at the most shared articles in the US on Facebook over the past year,’ a blog post by the Facebook team read.
‘The stories range from cute to thought-provoking and represent the type of news people have been sharing and discovering with friends in 2011.’
As the above graph indicates, the top 40 articles came from just six online news sources, largely led by Yahoo! and CNN.
Ten of the top 40 most shared articles were from CNN, second only to Yahoo, with 12.
The Complete List of Facebook’s Most Shared Articles of 2011
1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami (New York Times)
2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN)
3. No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed (CNN)
4. Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps (CNN)
5. (video) – Father Daughter Dance Medley (Yahoo)
6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo)
7. You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN)
8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo)
9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo)
10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post)
11. Parents keep child’s gender under wraps (Yahoo)
12. How to Talk to Little Girls (The Huffington Post)
13. Stop Coddling the Super-Rich (New York Times)
14. Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior (Wall Street Journal)
15. (video) – Twin Baby Boys Have A Conversation! (Yahoo)
16. Man robs bank to get medical care in jail (Yahoo)
17. Why You’re Not Married (The Huffington Post)
18. A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs (New York Times)
19. Ryan Dunn Dead: ‘Jackass’ Star Dies In Car Crash (The Huffington Post)
20. Scientists warn California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’ (Yahoo)
21. Notes From a Dragon Mom (New York Times)
22. A Message to Women From a Man: You Are Not “Crazy” (The Huffington Post)
23. Obama’s and Bush’s effects on the deficit in one graph (Washington Post)
24. Penn State, my final loss of faith (Washington Post)
25. Golden-Voiced Homeless Man Captivates Internet (Yahoo)
26. The most typical face on the planet (Yahoo)
27. Widespread destruction from Japan earthquake, tsunamis (CNN)
28. Permissive parents: Curb your brats (CNN)
29. A father’s day wish: Dads, wake the hell up! (CNN)
30. (video) – Laughing Baby Loves Ripping Paper! (Yahoo)
31. Epic Cover Letter: How To Get Hired For Your Dream Job (PICTURE) (The Huffington Post)
32. New Zodiac sign dates: Don’t switch horoscopes yet (Washington Post)
33. Things Babies Born in 2011 Will Never Know (Yahoo: Money Talk News)
34. The Psychology of Revenge: Why We Should Stop Celebrating Osama Bin Laden’s Death (The Huffington Post)
35. (photo gallery) – ‘Where Children Sleep’ (New York Times)
36. Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet, shifted Earth’s axis (CNN)
37. Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies (CNN)
38. China’s latest craze: dyeing pets to look like other wild animals (CNN)
39. Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose (New York Times)
40. Steve Jobs’s Patents (New York Times)
View the full details and links on Facebook’s blog here.
