The Internet is a strange place

Have you seen these Web sites in your e-mail inbox lately?

Forget-me-not panties: Ever worry about your wife cheating? Want to know where your daughter is late at night? Need to know when your girlfriend’s temperature is rising? These panties can give you her location, and even her temperature and heart rate, and she will never even know it’s there! Unlike the cumbersome and uncomfortable chastity belts of the past, these panties are 100% cotton, and use cutting-edge technology to help you protect what matters most.

The Brain Freeze: A Web site filled with video clips of people getting the infamous “Brain Freeze” or ice cream headache from Slurpees (Snack Mommy, this one made me think of you!)

Blogebrity Magazine: A celebrity Webzine just for bloggers! Are you in it? (And more importantly, how do I get in it?)

and last but not least,

Crying While Eating: View video clips of people crying while eating. Text blurbs beside each still photo tell you what they are eating and why they are crying.

Aside from being some seriously weird shit, these Web sites have at least one thing in common: they have all been created to be entries in a viral marketing contest called the Contagious Media Showdown. The contest, designed to study how ideas spread on the Web, has been running for a couple of weeks and ends tomorrow (June 9). Each Web site’s unique visitors and Technorati ranking are tabulated and they are ranked by popularity.

In an article in the Media Daily News Jonah Perretti of contest sponsor Eyebeam explains the contest was put together to determine what kind of virulent virals Web-goers could come up with, and the common characteristics of content with very high pass-along rates.

According to the same article, by day six of the contest, Crying While Eating had more than 150,000 unique visitors, although according to today’s ranking Forget Me Not Panties has pulled ahead. There have been some vetches that by publishing a live list of the rankings, Contagious Media have tampered with the results – people visiting the rankings tend to only view the top sites and perpetuate their ranking.

And as for Blogebrity Magazine? They’re actually thinking of launching the Webzine and used their contest entry as a trail balloon. I wonder if they’re looking for a cover girl? (insert coquettish eyelash flutter here)

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

10 thoughts on “The Internet is a strange place”

  1. unbelievable. glad you posted the link so I know where to get me some of those panties…

  2. not sure what to think here…people with way too much time on their hands OR people with way too much imagination!
    it’s a strange world out there!

  3. So…what if you got a Brain Freeze while wearing Forget Me Not Panties???
    And did you read the testimonials for the panties (yes, like a train wreck I had to look) – a dad wanting a video link to his daughters panties?!?! And published articles in magazines like Hi-Tech, techliving, Sync, and Catholic Parent??? Very scary….and somewhat disturbing.

  4. A Blogebrity magazine, eh? Maybe we should be thinking about something more akin to the Blogger’s National Enquirer. We could cover hard-hitting stories full of investigative journalisitic integrity…like what kind of underwear certain high profile bloggers wear when they post, or snapshots of them going to the supermarket in their jammies.
    Of course, we WOULD need a covergirl and a centrefold. Are you okay with having staples in inconvenient places in the picture?

  5. The testimonials are something else. I have a question though…who would consent to wearing them? From the “sensatech system” pciture, I gather there’s a watch battery inside them. Even watch batteries have some substance to them so I don’t think they would go unnoticed. Wouldn’t you ask your spouse and/or parent what the heck was going on if they bought you panties with a battery in them. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favour of undies with batteries as long as there’s some sort of immediate joy associated with the battery.

  6. Troy, I like the way you think. I’m so about being a celebrity blog centrefold, staples and all!
    And Batman, if someone gave me undies with a battery in them and just said “Trust me”, I would. Well, not just random people on the street. Well, not the scary looking ones.
    xo Danigirl

  7. I thought all this meant that hte panties were a joke? Just a virus? To see if people would visit, not that anyone has actually made htem? I’m so confused.

  8. LOL Andrea! It’s a hoax, you’re right. All the Web sites were created simply to see if people would talk about them.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *