“ The 52 Places to Go in 2014” is just an old-fashioned travel feature, albeit a very pretty one online. Some of these attention-getting stories are new variants on ancient newspaper techniques. They promise a diversion, and-because viral-friendly content is still something of an anomaly for the staid Times-they usually supply it. “Forty Portraits in 40 Years,” “ The 52 Places to Go in 2014,” “ Watch 10,000 League of Legends Games in 30 Seconds,” and the seven-minute workout all scratch an itch for readers. Scanning this list, I’d note how many of these stories aren’t news stories at all, or exemplify “curiosity journalism”- Atlantic contributing editor Ian Bogost’s term for a kind of story that does well online. I’ve posted the rest of their list below, with links to the stories themselves. The app was the third-most visited thing last year. Now the Gray Lady has released its most popular stories of 2014, and while the dialect quiz has surrendered the top spot, it’s stayed on the winners’ podium.

The rest of the news media evidently learned a lesson from its success: In the months that followed, BuzzFeed unleashed its own brand of Facebook-friendly quizzes and Slate published its super-simple Name Travoltifier, which itself became the most-visited “article” in the site’s history. Published in 2013’s final fortnight, the quiz beat out every article, every obituary, every magazine feature. The paper published thousands of stories online, yet its most popular piece of content wasn’t a story at all. Part of the country and live in another and have them take the quiz and discuss its results.In 2013, something funny happened at The New York Times. WHAT would be more likely to be his or her three identified cities: those from his or her youth or current location? WHY? Test your theory by finding people who were born in one Suppose a person grows up in one part of the country but lives for a long time in another area. WHAT other differences in speech or word choice have you observed that were not part of this quiz? WHEN have you encountered differences in pronunciation or in the words used to describe something? WHY do you think this quiz was one of the most e-mailed on the Times site in late December? WHY do you think there are so many different terms for “a big road on which you drive relatively fast”? HOW many of those words do you recognize or have heard people use? HOW many words are there for the large, wild cat that is native to the Americas? HOW many syllables are pronounced in the word “caramel” where you live? WHERE do people call the same sandwich a “grinder”? WHERE are people most likely to use the word “hoagie” for a long sandwich filled with cold cuts and lettuce? WHAT does this quiz say about where you’re from based on the way you answered the questions? You may need to return to certain quiz questions a second time, choosing different answers, in order to display the information needed for some of the questions. The map above is linked to an interactive quiz called “How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk.” Take the quiz and pay attention to the map that will display on the left of the screen as you go in order to answer the following questions. Read the article and answer the news questions below.

New york times regional dialect quiz