Top 11 most-read stories of 2011:1. Rocket fire increases; IDF may deploy Iron Dome soon 2. Muslim Brotherhood: ‘Prepare Egyptians for war with Israel' 3. 'Die Welt': Iran building rocket bases in Venezuela 4. Farrakhan: Jews are pushing the US into war 5. Cairo: Anger starting to focus on Israel, US -6. Muslim Brotherhood text reveals scope of radical creed 7. Palin at Kotel tunnel: Israel too apologetic 8. Iranian FM says Bushehr nuclear plant is operational 9. PM slams Obama call for ‘Palestine’ based on ’67 lines 10. Exclusive photos: Bieber finally visits the Western Wall11. ‘We know that Netanyahu cannot sleep now’These stories span a variety of notable events from the past year such as the Arab Spring, rocket fire on the South and Iran’s nuclear progress. In the 10th spot, the list boasts exclusive photos from The Jerusalem Post’s photographer, Marc Israel Sellem, of a somewhat less serious nature – Canadian pop icon Justin Bieber’s visit to the Western Wall. Also on the list, notably, were two in-depth pieces from Jerusalem Post reporters Melanie Lidman and Ben Hartman, who traveled to Cairo to cover the unprecedented protests there earlier in the year.Which leads us to the next Top 11 list, the top Jerusalem Post reporters, columnists and feature writers, according to how many readers checked out their author pages:Top 11 JPost author pages of 2011 1. Caroline Glick 2. Yaakov Katz 3. Herb Keinon 4. Gil Hoffman 5. Judy Siegel-Itzkovich 6. Lahav Harkov 7. Elana Kirsh 8. Yaakov Lappin 9. Ben Hartman 10. Barry Rubin11. Nadav Shemer Elsewhere online, YouTube put together its own series of “Top 10s,” some of which were more serious and newsworthy than others.A particularly interesting feature was YouTube Trends: One Year Later, which celebrated a year since the video-sharing site’s blog was launched by looking at the most-viewed posts. Three of the 10 featured posts were actually lists of 10 themselves, in keeping with the end-of-year theme. Among the videos mentioned was this memorable gaffe by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in which he stumbled when asked to name agencies that he would eliminate if elected US president:Also noted on the YouTube list, unsurprisingly, were videos related to the killing of Osama bin Laden. This playlist alone garnered almost two million views.Also worth checking out is YouTube’s top political videos of 2011, if you’re that way inclined, featuring US President Barack Obama’s comedy routine at the White House correspondents’ dinner, which pulled a whopping nine million views, and various political soundbites and ads.
The writer is the Internet desk manager at The Jerusalem Post.