January to December
The 2010 timeline
9 documented events in internet culture. Featured events carry a red marker. Each one links to its sources.
January
20100 eventsNo events recorded for January in this category.
February
20102 events- FeaturedCultureSupported
Chatroulette goes viral
The random-webcam site built by a Russian teenager exploded in February, reaching hundreds of thousands of daily users and becoming, per Google, the fastest-rising search of 2010.
- CultureVerified
Old Spice posts "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"
The single-take Old Spice advert starring Isaiah Mustafa was posted to YouTube ahead of the Super Bowl and became the year's most-shared commercial, followed in July by a two-day blitz of personalised video replies.
March
20100 eventsNo events recorded for March in this category.
April
20100 eventsNo events recorded for April in this category.
May
20101 event- CultureSupported
Lost airs its series finale
About 13.5 million Americans watched The End, and the internet argued about it for weeks on forums, Twitter and recap blogs.
June
20100 eventsNo events recorded for June in this category.
July
20102 events- CultureSupported
Old Spice answers the internet with 186 personalised videos
Over two days the Old Spice team filmed nearly 200 short video replies to questions from Twitter, Reddit and YouTube users, one of the most celebrated social-media marketing stunts ever.
- CultureVerified
Inception is released
Christopher Nolan's dream-heist film became the year's most-discussed movie online, spawning the BWONG trailer meme and endless ending debates.
August
20100 eventsNo events recorded for August in this category.
September
20100 eventsNo events recorded for September in this category.
October
20102 events- FeaturedCultureVerified
The Social Network opens in cinemas
David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's film about Facebook's founding opened to acclaim and fixed the popular image of Mark Zuckerberg months before Time named him Person of the Year.
- CultureSupported
The Walking Dead premieres on AMC
The zombie drama's Halloween debut drew 5.3 million viewers, a record for a cable series premiere, and launched a decade of live-tweeted Sunday nights.
November
20100 eventsNo events recorded for November in this category.
December
20102 events- CultureVerified
"App" is named 2010 Word of the Year
The American Dialect Society voted "app" its word of the year for 2010, beating "nom" and "junk"; the New Oxford American Dictionary had chosen "refudiate".
- FeaturedCultureVerified
Anonymous attacks PayPal, Visa and MasterCard for WikiLeaks
In Operation Payback, Anonymous volunteers used the LOIC tool to knock the websites of companies that had cut off WikiLeaks offline for hours.
