Zeitgeist 2012: Google is the only site to get it right

We have seen top-10 lists now from Yahoo, Twitter and Facebook. Sure, all of them provided the raw data pertaining to the most-searched for and most-talked about products, events, people and more from the past year. Google, with it's popular Zeitgeist release, did the same. But the search leader took it one step further and, in so doing, was the real winner in this 2012 popularity contest.

Google provides perspective and emotion to raw, boring statistics and creates something that is appealing to basic human instincts. The company put together a video that will jog your memory, make you smile and bring a tear to your eye.

Adding images is the perfect way to sum up everything we remember, or wish we could forget, from the past year. The company provides a way to actually relive the moments, both good and bad, that touched all of us.

It doesn't take long -- just under thee minutes to be exact. But in that brief span of time you will find the great people the world lost this year, see images from the London summer Olympics, agonize over the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, experience again the thrill of Felix Baumgartner's incredible leap from the stratosphere, watch revolution in the middle east and a whole mot more.

When I expressed in the headline that Google is the only one that gets it right I do not mean to slight the other services. I am sure each does its best to report data -- although Twitter may have exaggerated a bit. Numbers and lists are great. Statistics are a wonderful thing. But they are also very dry in many ways. No, Google gets the year in review right because it appeals to real people and provides inspiration from simple statistics. That is a feat rarely accomplished.

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