Relive 2011 With Amazing Google Video: Zeitgeist 2011 Year In Review

Google typically puts out a lot of great year-end content related to their search engine product. It usually involves lists of the most searched phrases or stories throughout the year. And this year, they've taken their fantastic data and turned it into a video, and the resulting product, "Zeitgeist 2011 Year In Review," ends up being far more moving and sentimental than any top 10 list of search terms could ever hope to be.

There's the tsunami in Japan, flooding in multiple areas of the world, protests, wars, and other major moments from the year that is almost over.

Google's Zeitgeist 2011 Year In Review Video

If you have three minutes, take a look. I promise you won't be bored:

Of course, Zeitgeist 2011 is more than just a moving retrospective of the past year in news stories. It's also an advertisement for Google products--and a tremendous one at that. Search is featured prominently, but so is Google Plus--notice how several of the big news events are being shared on Google Plus Streams within the context of the commercial.

The subtle message here is this: You can learn almost everything you need to know about the important things in your world from Google.

It's a great way to look back and reflect on 12 months worth of important stories and events. It's also an excellent piece of video marketing, and one that I hope gets more attention--it's not viral yet, but as of this writing it's less than two days old. I'm sure it'll gain plenty of views once word gets out on it.