Valtrex For Geeks
I’m going to propose that we in the tech industry retire the word “viral”. It has, over the last few years, become meaningless. Ever since it started being applied to videos, it’s just become a synonym for word of mouth, a phrase which didn’t need a refresh.
It used to be that viral meant something. A viral app was one that’s very use spread it. You didn’t have to tell anyone about the product, you just used it and they heard.
The best example is the original, Hotmail. You’d get a free web-based email account, and whenever you sent someone an email, there was a message at the bottom that said “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com”. You didn’t have to tell someone about it, or link to it from your blog. Simply using the product made others aware, and it spread through the internet like Ebola through Zaire.
A good, more recent example, is the Sell Your Friends Facebook application. You install it, and then you begin buying and selling people from your friend list. And every time you do so, the friend who has been bought or sold is notified and learns of the app’s existence. It has a tremendous install base because of that.
And really, what is a virus? It’s something that travels from one host to another without any effort on the host’s part. Hotmail was like AIDS, which is generally spread by people who don’t even know they have it. Telling someone about a video is more like someone with a cold purposely coughing in your drink (unless it features Avril Lavigne, that’s just plain rude).
So now people refer to a YouTube clip or a blog entry about how great Ron Paul is as viral, and it isn’t. Watching a video or reading a poorly-spelled article about a politician who is going to get some tiny fraction of a percent of the popular vote doesn’t make anyone else aware of its existence (the blog entry’s or Ron Paul’s). They have a couple features that make it easier to tell people about the video (embeds, share links, etc.) or blog post (Share This links) but the main action itself does not spread the meme. It’s no more viral than toothpaste. Which, by the way, the lemon-flavored Crest: fantastic. Like a meringue pie on a stick.
So let’s all agree to either redefine viral back to something useful, or just retire it all together and go back to just saying “word of mouth” and stop sounding like hipster dufuses. I’m fine with either. It’s your call.
May 20, 2008 at 10:00 am
I'm baffled as to why you feel the need to share most of your ideas.
May 20, 2008 at 11:46 am
I'm baffled as to why you feel the need to ask that on my blog.
May 20, 2008 at 12:38 pm
To “go viral” means that something has a growth coeffiicent greater than one. That is, on average, for every person who sees it, they managed to convince more than one other person to see it.
Viral growth is exponential and self-sustaining and, thus, looks completely different from non-viral growth which is why the term is so useful. Also, logically viral growth cannot continue indefinitely so it makes more sense to talk about a “viral phase” than a piece of media being viral.
May 20, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Is that useful if you donâ??t revert viral to its original meaning? Especially in the context of a YouTube video, that might get most of its views from people clicking “most popular” links on the site? Viral coefficients are great for things like hotmail, useless for videos on YouTube.
May 21, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Something unrelated.
How has your experience with Snaptalent ads been on the blog.
May 21, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I, in turn, am also baffled.
May 25, 2008 at 11:23 pm
my given name is Martin Bafflewright. I was born in Gibraltar but grew up in Cardiff.
May 26, 2008 at 12:02 am
grrrrrrrrrrreat.
May 26, 2008 at 12:53 am
Symptoms are varied and often appear suddenly. Initial symptoms include high fever (at least 38.8°C; 101.8°F), severe headache, muscle, joint, or abdominal pain, severe weakness and exhaustion, sore throat, nausea, and dizziness[11]. Before an outbreak is suspected, these early symptoms are easily mistaken for malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, influenza, or various bacterial infections, which are all far more common and reliably less fatal.
Ebola may progress to cause more serious symptoms, such as diarrhea, dark or bloody feces, vomiting blood, red eyes due to Distension and hemorrhage of sclerotic arterioles, petechia, maculopapular rash, and purpura. Other secondary symptoms include hypotension (less than 90 mm Hg systolic /60 mm Hg diastolic), hypovolemia, tachycardia, organ damage (especially the kidneys, spleen, and liver) as a result of disseminated systemic necrosis, and proteinuria. The interior bleeding is caused by a chemical reaction between the virus and the platelets which creates a chemical that will cut cell sized holes into the capillary walls. After 5-7 days the person will die of “a million cuts.” Occasionally, internal and external hemorrhage from orifices, such as the nose and mouth may also occur, as well as from incompletely healed injuries such as needle-puncture sites.
May 26, 2008 at 1:34 am
i like ron paul. lemon toothpaste, not so much.