viral

This vid's been making the viral rounds in my Twitter friends list and such, accompanied by claims of "greatest prank ever" and what-have-you. Personally, I think it's clever, but I can't seem to believe that people actually fell for it--and the camera angles and quality are suspiciously professional, not hidden-camera caliber. Still good for a few laughs, though.

Larry Ellison aside, those Middle Eastern businessmen sure do put Silicon Valley to shame when it comes to extravagant displays of opulence. Typically, we don't get names to accompany the tales of pimped-out Airbus A380s and the like, but generally the price tags speak for themselves. My favorite new "oh my gosh, I can't believe how much cash that guy spent" story was covered in the British press earlier this week: a band of partiers, led by an anonymous Dubai cash cow, spent a total of $210,000 at the posh London nightclub Crystal last Saturday … Read more

Making the viral rounds today, thanks largely in part to a Boing Boing nod, is this groovy Mental Floss quiz: Scooby Doo: Ripped from the Headlines? Your task in the ten-question examination is to read a brief synopsis of a crime and determine whether it actually happened or if it was the plot of a Scooby Doo episode. Surprisingly, none of them involve pot busts.

A few of them are pretty easy. Others, not so much.

Me? I scored 8 out of 10. In both instances where I missed a question, it was a Scooby Doo plot synopsis that I … Read more

Beware of JEALOUS COMPUTERS! Apparently they have started to attack (particularly N95 owners)... here you see a few poor victims of a laptop bite and a keyboard to the face. Not pretty. Well Nokia has really gone all out on this viral N95 site... I just wrote up a big piece on this over at NOTCOT, and it was too hilarious, bizarre, and nicely designed not to share with you CNET readers too. Basically they have created a whole series of PSAs, posters, tshirts, and even a mug (well, half mug, and well they have a cool pic, but it … Read more

We know the next few days are just going to be iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. That's why we're bringing something completely different to you: the Dramatic Chipmunk (who is really a prairie dog, but you knew that already) is back. Except, thanks to a little bit of low-grade video editing, he (she?) is now the Darthmatic Chipmunk. Thanks, CollegeHumor!

It's a well-documented phenomenon: the rise of Web video has fueled a trend of 'bite-size entertainment.' Wired magazine devoted an entire cover story (actually, a set of mini cover stories) to it in its March '07 issue. The attention-deficient Web's appetite for small clips and short blog entries has gotten to the point where MySpace.com has actually condensed classic TV episodes into "minisodes" for its members.

But the latest viral video craze makes those three- to five-minute minisodes seem like Titanic. This is the "Dramatic Chipmunk," a 5-second clip of a chubby rodent … Read more

In a move that will certainly strike fear in the hearts of creative ad agency employees, a major advertiser has created a new television ad using nothing but viral video from YouTube, MySpace and other such sites.

Fast food company KFC has turned to user-generated content, also known as UGC, to advertise that its food has "0 grams of trans fat per serving" but with "the same great taste." Why bother paying ad agencies to come up with a fresh idea for a commercial, along with writers, actors and filmmakers, when you can just grab free … Read more

MySpace quietly launched Trailer Park this morning, a new area showcasing trailers for upcoming movies. All videos are played on the in-house MySpace player and can be embedded on member pages. Trailer Park is launching with five trailers from Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Independent, and Buena Vista Pictures.

The page is designed to feel like a member's profile, with forums, a friends list, and a comment board. The dearth of actual content about a movie (actors, ratings, and so on) can be found at the movie's marketing site, which gets its own link alongside the trailer.

Unfortunately, from the … Read more

When Snakes on a Plane came out, actor Samuel L. Jackson called people to promote the film.

Peter Parker, better known as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, will be doing something similar this weekend. If you visit this Hasbro site you (and your friends) can get a call from Spider-Man. Don't expect a long chat with Spidey--the call will unfortunately be automated (I guess I won't be able to discuss the whole Venom conspiracy with him).

Enter your birthday and 10-digit phone number, and you'll get a Spider-reminder to go out and get exclusive Spider-Man 3 merchandise and … Read more