Google Doodlebugs bust the block

The numbers this week are beyond anything that has been seen since this report began. The top view count beats the average by an order of magnitude. Usually the appearance of numbers this big on the list is due to spamming, but in this case it seems they are due to honest interest; more specifically, Google Doodles, which for the first time claimed all five top slots. This column has raised numerous times the power of a Google Doodle to shine light on Wikipedia, but the wattage has never been as high as this.

For the full top 25 list, plus exclusions, see WP:TOP25.

For the week of 3 to 9 November, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Notes
1	Shakuntala Devi		9,135,919	Since this project began, nothing has generated views like this Indian mental calculator and novelist. Is it spam? Possibly; however, it's important to remember another phenomenon oft mentioned in this column- the influence of Indian viewers, which has often driven articles to the top in the past. That, combined with the fact that Devi died this year, might be enough to explain the magnitude of this view count. But of course we can never be sure.
2	Hermann Rorschach		4,506,507	In any other week, the inventor of the projective, amorphous blot that bears his name would have claimed the record for the most views since the start of this project. But this is not any other week. Even if you add the additional views for his eponymous test (see below), the numbers don't come close.
3	Raymond Loewy		2,697,107	The industrial designer contributed to Google Doodles' hegemony over the top of the list this week.
4	C. V. Raman		1,207,929	The Indian physicist, Nobel Prize winner and namesake of the light phenomena of Raman scattering and the Raman effect is another who owes his berth to a Google Doodle, though the same bump from Indian viewers probably contributed as well.
5	Rorschach test		828,642	Rorschach's eponymous test concludes the list of Google Doodle-driven trumps this week.
6	Desmond Tutu		724,701	A one-day spike on 5 November with no discernible trail might suggest a bot; however, since it occurred on the same day as the Nobel Peace Prizewinning anti-apartheid activist's delivery of the inaugural Janagraha L.C. Jain Memorial Lecture at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi, it is probably real.
7	Deaths in 2013	List	568,154	The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
8	Krrish 3		561,758	Bollywood's homegrown superhero movie franchise opened its latest instalment on 1 November to take advantage of the Diwali holiday, and earned Rs 728 million (US$11 million) in its first three days.
9	Climatic Research Unit email controversy		540,216	This controversy, better known as "Climategate", has crawled back up into the limelight after the initial release of the IPCC's fifth report, although eight committees have already acquitted the scientists in question of any wrongdoing.
10	Richie Incognito		531,404	This football player's inclusion is likely due to his reported racial abuse of his teammate Jonathan Martin.

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13 November 2013 (all comments)

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Is there any chance that Dennis Hwang can give us a heads-up a month or so in advance, so that we can improve the coverage of a start class article to something more appropriate for 9m hits? Josh Parris 10:24, 16 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@Josh Parris: Yeah. It is really required for sure. - Jayadevp13 11:22, 16 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Who would "us" be in that case? They probably would need a trusted set of contacts who can drive interest/editing to the right articles without spilling the beans, and I'm wondering who that would be in this case. -LuisVilla (talk) 15:30, 18 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Let's pretend the forthcoming doodle subject becomes public knowledge. What would happen? Competitors would change their doodles, to bring one up a day early? Josh Parris 21:09, 18 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

3 India related articles. Seeing after a long time. - Jayadevp13 11:22, 16 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
You realize that Devi was recently on a Google Doodle too, right? And worldwide. Ego White Tray (talk) 16:48, 16 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
- I'm pretty sure that was the point. Serendi ^pod ous 17:02, 16 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Don't underestimate the power of Indian Viewers :-P - Jayadevp13 04:01, 17 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

AFAIK, Google Chrome has also made some changes (a few weeks ago) that result in the doodle being seen in the new tab page in Chrome (at least for some users with some particular combination of settings), so I guess more people are going to see Google Doodles than before. Shreevatsa (talk) 04:57, 17 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's interesting that Doodle drive so much traffic to Wikipedia articles. I was thinking that, since Google started taking excerpts of articles and facts/figures to provide snippets of info at the top of results pages, Wikipedia traffic might slightly decrease. With more and more doodles, however, I've been wrong in my theory. Killiondude (talk) 07:46, 17 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For me, it started a few weeks ago with Chrome. I use to do Google searches from the toolbar but now I get a miniature version of Google.com that shows me the day's doodle. I use to only find out about unusual doodles the day after they were posted but now I've seen all of the recent ones. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:23, 17 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Going on this evidence, I'll predict that Sachin Tendulkar will make next week's top ten. --Roisterer (talk) 02:16, 18 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]