Viral Videos Gone Wild

The other day I was flipping through the channels and I landed on what I thought at first was a joke. Months back on YouTube I saw a similar video so I thought I was hallucinating. I checked the station, it was MTV and continued to watch.

Slap Chop is a culinary dicing tool that eliminates the hassle of using a conventional knife to slice up your favorite foods. Just simply place the food below the device, give it a few slaps and dinner is severed. The original commercial featured a young fast-talking pitchman that rifled through Slap Chop’s features slicing everything from eggs to onions. I then discovered on YouTube weeks later a video mimicking the same commercial that had me in hysterics.

A user took the Slap Chop commercial used Auto Tune, a popular method to robotize a voice, and put a back-beat behind it which turned it into a rap. The video received thousands of hits and sky-rocketed to top viewed clips. The creators of this product decided to respond to what the users wanted and took this same concept and made a commerical out of it. This same YouTube video went from spoof to reality in a matter of months.

Can your business take advantage of online user based contributions and turn it into a product campaign?

http://www.slapchoprap.com

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Twitter Hover Cards

Have you heard of Hover Cards? Twitter is rolling out a new feature that gives you the ability to learn a little bit more about your fellow Twitterer by hovering over their name. Now instead of having to leave the page, you can follow, retweet and find their vital stats in a single glance.

http://blog.twitter.com/2010/02/flying-around-with-hovercards.html

Thanks to Todd Bertsch for the tip!

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Apptizr Serves iPhone Apps

Looking for another way to find new iPhone or iTouch apps? Check out Apptizr because it’s the easiest way to discover the best apps. You’ll get 10 new recommendations per week. You can rate apps and the system will begin to present the best ones to you based on your tastes.

Instead of searching through top 50 app lists, let Apptizr do the hard work for you! Get an Apptizr account to customize your results at apptizr.com.

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How Do You Recognize Legit Internet Coupons?

The other day as I stood in line with my 12 items and more, I wandered past the tabloids, assortment of flavored low- calorie gum, and landed on photocopy nestled between the cashier and my groceries. The sheet listed tips for the cashier to recognize a legitimate Internet coupon. I immediately had a Family Guy flash forward; it featured me holding up the line with a phony coupon and an angry mob chasing me down in the parking lot, flipping my car over and taking my Twinkie box. Thus, I read on and decided to share the information with you!

How to Identify A Legit Internet Coupon:
1. No Free / High Value Coupons - Does the offer looks to good to be true?
2. Customer Identifiers - Asks you enter in a Pin code from a website
3. Expiration Date - Is there a date, if so is it within a few months?
4. Legal Language - Is there legal language (fine print)?
5. Easily Scannable Barcode - Does the bar code code look clear?
6. Color or Black & White - It doesn’t matter
7. Multiple Coupon Prints - There should be a limit, if not probably not real
8. Obvious Alteration - Common sense goes a long way

This information is courtesy of the Association of Coupon Professionals. Would knew there was organization devoted to coupons, now that’s cool!

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Phising Still Looms

Phishers seek to trip up users to divulging their userID and passwords. We should take heed of this video in composing and not disclosing our userID and passwords.

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iPad Just One Big iTouch?

I missed the keynote yesterday of Steve Jobs unveiling the new iPad from Apple. After watching the presentation, I hope don’t insult the visionary product by saying, “Isn’t it just a big iTouch?” Jobs listed all the features during the demo and almost everything he highlighted is available on the iPhone. The iPad is light, thin, powerful and the screen is awesome. I realize you have the iPhone, the iMac and in his presentation this falls in between, but does it? Perhaps there are really only two categories, mobile devices and laptops.

In it’s current state, isn’t the iPad just be one big iTouch? I guess I need to see one to believe it.

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SMS Haiti Relief Campaign

SMS means short message system also known as text messaging. The recent Haiti earthquake catastrophe has not only orchestrated a tremendous humanitarian effort but has propelled mobile technology. In the aftermath, the Red Cross encouraging responders to donate $10 by texting Haiti to 90999; the donation was then applied to their phone bill. The campaign has raised over 10 million dollars in less than couple weeks from more than one million donors.

The SMS Haiti relief campaign has been deemed one of the greatest fund raisers to date not only because of the results, but since it was simply convenient for users to participate. I have already seen another advertisement asking viewers to text another keyword to 90999 to make a $5 donation to a cause. The bar has been now set with the Haiti campaign, how will this mobile medium continue to grow as a viable source of ecommerce?

Did you donate to Haiti through texting? If so, will continue to make donations through your mobile phone?

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Web 2.0 Suicide

Are you sick of Twittering? Last year Miley Cyrus pulled the plug on her Twitter account after months of speculation. Social Networking is like exercising. You need to consistently workout 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes a session. The more you exercise, the better your results. If you don’t have time to commit to social networking, then you can now easily pull the plug.

A new website called the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine will erase your social networking account instantly. All you do is login to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace account and within minutes your site is history. In the past, the process involved logging into each account, finding the delete this account button, and moving through the prompts of the networking begging you not to leave. Now all you have to do is login this online application and end your accounts forever.

http://suicidemachine.org/

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Tennis Revolutionizing Instant Replay

Have you ever watched instant replay in a professional tennis game? You may have noticed that the system is different than any other professional sport because it’s computer generated.

In the NFL, NBA and MLB the judges (referees, umpires, etc…) use actual live video footage to review a controversial play, however in tennis they use a sophisticated computer system called Hawk-eye. The system was invented in the late 1990s by Dr. Paul Hawkins and has been used by professional tennis since 2006. The camera based system monitors the flight and the landing of the tennis ball creating a digital display of it’s trajectory. “Electronic line calling is a revolutionary development for the game of tennis,” said Butch Buchholz NASDAQ-100 Open Chairman and Co-Founder. “As good as the line judges are, having the ability to back them up with state-of-the-art technology is great for the game and for the players.”

The question I ask, “Can this technology translate successfully into other major league level sport officiating?”

http://www.hawkeyesensors.com

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MySpace Still Number 3

MySpace is the third most popular social networking website. They recently rolled-out an updated homepage, but is it too late? The site has gathered the reputation that it’s littered with too many ads and thousands of people are flocking from MySpace to Facebook every day. I conducted a poll and five out of seven people said they haven’t visited their MySpace page in two years. It seems as though the website has turned into a mecca for musicians and that may the saving grace for MySpace.

Can these recent improvements save the slipping social networking platform?

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