TimeTube is a neat service that takes a search for YouTube clips and puts them onto a timeline according to when they were uploaded.
It’s almost like a video history lesson: In the Barack Obama timeline above, you can start watching from the “I inhaled frequently” video in 2006 through the famous “Yes We Can video” to a recent video of Obama playing 3-on-3 basketball in Kokomo, IN.
You can track video memes back to their original source videos. So, for example, do a search for Dramatic Chipmunk, and you’ll find, first, an educational video of Japanese girls looking at a prairie dog, then the clip from that video with dramatic music that everyone was passing around about a year ago. Then you can see the meme evolve, with the “Curses!” video and other remixes, and then see the meme slowly fade out over time.
It’s a neat little web toy that might even be a useful research tool. (Via Lifehacker)