Along with Kirsty Styles and David Murphy, Ive spent the week looking back over 2013, and picking out the biggest stories, the most interesting trends and the most important acquisitions of the past twelve months.

You can see our picks – and read why we think theyre so important – by clicking on the links above, but I think its telling that none of us chose the same thing. Vital developments are taking place at all times, in all corners of the industry, and a glance at some of the other most interesting articles of the week only serves to reinforce that.

Google unveiled the years most popular search terms, with Nelson Mandela topping the list, while the three marketing videos that appeared in the top 10 video searches reflect how successful viral marketing has become.

Instagram gave us a glimpse into its first ad campaigns, one of the many native advertising launches on social networks this year. It really was just a glimpse, but the early results are promising.

And finally, two pieces of YouGov research showed the ever-increasing ubiquity of tablets, predicting that 4m of the devices will be sold this Christmas, and that more than half of UK households will own a tablet by the end of 2014.

Next week is a short one, with Christmas falling in the middle of the week. But well be continuing our look back, asking a selection of brands and mobile experts about their favourite app this year and speaking to MTV parent company Viacom about their mobile journey in 2013, before shining the spotlight on next year with a series of 2014 predictions.

Thanks for reading,

Alex Spencer
Online Editor