Behind Your Business

President Barack Obama's historic inauguration was the most searched-for topic on YouTube in January. But it didn't make the video site's most-watched list for 2009. More people were interested in Susan Boyle, the unglamorous Scottish vocal sensation whose flawless rendering of I Dreamed A Dream on Britain's Got Talent made her an unlikely star.

Boyle's wowing of Simon Cowell was viewed online an astonishing more than 120 million times, taking the top spot on YouTube's first popularity roundup since the site's debut in 2005. The distant runner-up was David Goes To The Dentist, featuring a spacey kid on novocaine being interviewed by his dad, which was viewed more than 39 million times.

The list was posted Wednesday on Broadcasting Ourselves, the official YouTube blog. Rounding out the top five was the JK Wedding Dance (33 million-plus views), in which bridesmaids in Minnesota sashayed down the aisle to Chris Brown's Forever; the trailer for the hit vampire movie New Moon (31 million-plus); and a commercial for Evian water featuring computer-generated, but highly realistic, roller-skating babies (27 million-plus views).

"All of them inspired, entertained and connected millions of people around the world via YouTube," the blog says.

Culture as Prozac

No clips of the year's top news events -- from Obama's oath of office to the death of Michael Jackson, the landing of an airliner on New York's Hudson River, or the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor -- made the list.

That means despite the information potential of the enormously popular YouTube, which was acquired by Google for $1.6 billion in 2006, it is still being used primarily for fun and entertainment.

"By and large, we live in the bubble of consumerism," said Prof. Basilio Monteiro, who teaches mass communications studies at St. John's University in New York. "The myth of success, and the sense...