The masses are looking for Superbowl ads online this year. My post summarizing my favorites was an all-time most viewed for WillVideoForFood (see below), and “Superbowl” tops the Yahoo Buzz as the most searched term currently. 

Google News is flooded with articles about last night’s Superbowl commercials, and Twitter posts with the tag #superbowlads were all the rage, according to Cnet.

For years, websites featured the ads… but this year marks the first that major sites had all the ads posted immediately after the game. That required some preparation by advertisers and online-video sites. And it’s an indication that advertisers recognize that the post-game buzz is as important as the expensive $2.4 million per 30 seconds. As AdWeek observed, “Once upon a time, advertisers treated their Super Bowl ad campaigns like state secrets, keeping them under lock and key in the lead-up to the game. The surprise factor was paramount… This year, they unleashed trailers, behind-the-scenes snippets, social-network profiles and even full commercials, and not just on company sites and campaign microsites, but through YouTube players users can embed on their own sites. The upside in a recession: wringing every bit of value out of a 30-second, $3 million media buy.”

PETA captured some pre-game buzz by proposing a saucy commercial with women suggesting sex with vegetables, and some declare that strategy a win. The best ads are still being polled, and the journalist picks are nauseating. How can you not dig Pepsi’s Dylan/will.i.am ad? 

It’s also worth noting that Hulu.com took a Huluworld ad on the Superbowl featuring Alec Baldwin. A big step in the evolution of this medium. You can catch the ad (with a pre-roll by Coke) on Hulu. As the TechCrunch reports, “oddly enough is preceded by a regular Web video ad. That just seems wrong to me on so many levels, especially since Hulu itself (which is partly owned by NBC) probably didn’t have to pay for the spot.”

Mercy- if online video is going mainstream, maybe it’s time I look for a new fad?