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Time has announced their picks for the top viral videos of 2008. You can view them all above, or check out the list below. 

The Top 10 Viral Videos Of 2008

1. Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) 
2. Western Spaghetti by PES 
3. Christian the Lion
4. Hamster On A Piano (Eating Popcorn) 
5. Barack The Vote – Obama Loses Election 
6. Super Mario Rescues The Princess: Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade 
7. The Onion: Pretend You Give A Shit About The Election 
8. Star Wars according to a 3 year old
9. You Can Vote However You Like 
10. MadTv No Frills Airlines 

Humor rules the list – but Obama Loses Election showed that viral video could be used intelligently in the world of politics.

Turns out the Zunegate hype about Obama being a Zune fan may have been unwarranted.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama’s officially an iPod fan:

Yesterday the Philadelphia City Paper ignited a controversy over the question, with a blog entry that included the innocuous detail that the President-elect was working out while listening to the Microsoft (not Apple!) music player.

But today a spokesman puts the vicious rumor to rest. “Not true, the President-elect uses an iPod,” he says.

Will it end there?

Or could the official story just be a cover up?

President-elect Barack Obama kicks off his weekly new media address with this video.

Obama plans to publish weekly addresses to YouTube as President, a milestone in the adoption of new media. It will be a little strange to see Obama competing for views against Fred, but it’s sure to drive new audiences to Internet video.

Obama’s campaign was all over the Internet, using Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, among other sites. One can only wonder what other ways Obama will use Internet media over the next four years.

Everybody is analyzing Barack Obama’s historic win over John McCain and a lot of smart people have come to the conclusion that Obama’s use of new media was key to his win. 

Here are five of the most interesting looks at the new media angle of Obama’s campaign:

• The New York Times looks at How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power;
• The Guardian’s Jemima Kiss discusses Why everyone’s a winner with the Obama win;
• Another article at the New York Times talks about How Obama’s Internet Campaign Changed Politics;
• ReadWriteWeb has an interesting look at Obama’s Social Media Advantage;
• Louis Gray takes a look at Obama’s Online Facebook Efforts.