viral

Believe it or not, the fourth host on today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast is the Nook, Barnes & Noble's e-book reader with a color touch screen and Wi-Fi. The device is currently sold out and on back order throughout B&N, so it wasn't easy to obtain. We had to walk 500 miles and battle a Nazgul to get it, but the in-studio demo was worth the wait. If you haven't seen a Nook up close, you're in for a treat.

Speaking of treats, the holidays come early for The 404 this year! Today's episode starts off normal enough, with another story about a crazed girlfriend who destroys her boyfriend's precious PS3 and a couple making their own paranormal activity to fund their wedding, but the real story is the package we receive halfway through the live show from dedicated 404 listener Cori (Sadacori in the chat room). We've received care packages before, but this one is definitely the best. Just check out the picture up top! Thanks a million Cori, we really appreciate all the Yuletide pounds! :)

Our ill-deserved holiday break is coming up in two weeks, and we get awfully lonely if we don't hear from you, so won't you leave us a voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET and let us know how your holiday season is going? We'd love to hear your voices, but you can also e-mail us at the404(at)cnet[dot]com or add us on Twitter and Facebook as well!

While the rest of the developed world looks at the controversy over healthcare reform in the US with a mix of embarrassment and disbelief, Americans have experienced a raging debate this summer that was to a large part driven by word-of-mouth online.

MotiveQuest, a research firm, has evaluated the healthcare chatter bouncing around the Internet. It pulled data from more than 100 health and political forums and blogs, representing more than 2,000,000 posts and 110,000 people in the average month. Categorizing the debate’s language into thematic groups (treatments, payment methods, doctors/patients, and the uninsured), it … Read more

This week's collection of remarkable marketing links, curated by the frog marketing team.

Super-Powerful: An energy-generating bike rental system.

Personal: Jeff Jarvis announces on his blog that he has prostate cancer. How public do we want our health to be?

Creepy: Meet your Facebook contacts in a movie trailer cum gaming environment.

Obama I: The message is the message: New York Magazine thinks that “Obama’s ubiquitous appearances as professor-in-chief, preacher-in-chief, father-in-chief, may turn out to be the most salient feature of his presidency.” 

Obama II: Funny How?: Matt Bai believes that Obama’s “improvisational asides are like … Read more

When it comes to things viral, Microsoft is in an interesting period.

Recently, there was the wife vomiting in the direction of her porn-embracing husband--something of a dubious affair.

But now please welcome a delightful amuse-oeil that is reportedly from Microsoft Germany.

The video features someone supposedly named Bruno Kammerl, who appears to be zooming down a waterslide and flying into a kiddie pool several hundred feet away.

He comes out full of bonhomie and achievement--as one should feel when using Microsoft Office 2007.

Yes, there may have been a leap of faith in that last sentence. However, it … Read more

After participating in a Digital Brand Think Tank in Munich a couple of weeks ago (a lively discussion with 20 marketing executives from Audi, BMW, Google, Continental, and other top-tier brands), I must admit that I’m a bit tired of having to evangelize (or even justify) the value of brands using social media. It is astonishing to me that companies still ask for evidence when the tweet is on the wall. The event showed that there is a new Digital Divide that cuts straight through the ranks of the marketing industry--some executives get the Social Web, some don’t. … Read more

There's a lot to love about silly Internet memes and fads, and one reason is that they can dig up something old and make it cool again. Music is no exception: anything from a '70s rock anthem to a '90s one-hit wonder can be given new life if the YouTube or 4chan hordes get their hands on it.

The complication is that, thanks to the rise of user-generated content, a song can suddenly become in-demand again without any kind of official marketing push (like placement on a movie soundtrack, for example). And that's an interesting issue for the … Read more

I feel bad for Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Communications. He has to explain to his neighbors why an angry man with a megaphone invaded their exclusive neighborhood and shouted "Can you hear me now!?" at Seidenberg's house.

The man is John Hargrave of comedy site Zug.com, and he pulled his prank after finding Seidenberg's unlisted cell phone number and home address on a "free cell phone records" site. Therein lies the irony--as well as the humor--of the stunt. Hargrave says he did it to show that personal consumer data is too accessible … Read more

A couple of weeks ago I got to attend a press screening of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" a week before the general American release. There was only one trailer before the film, and that was for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which launches August 6.

I have been to many press screenings, but I've never heard professional movie critics--my colleagues--heckle a trailer before. The movie looks amazingly bad in every way. That's why I'm not surprised Paramount is taking the viral route to try to gain public interest in what will no … Read more

From the creators of "Drawn Together" comes "DJ & The Fro," a new daily, animated show on MTV. The 404 speaks to the creators, Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser, about the show and talk about how Michael Jackson's death almost ruined the shows' first few episodes.

The show creators call it a rip-off of "Beavis and Butthead" for the viral video generation. DJ and the Fro are two twenty-somethings, who spend most of their day watching viral videos and commenting on them. Sounds eerily similar to what The 404 guys do all day long. Anyway, the guys tell us about how the show came into being and let us know that a "Drawn Together" straight-to-DVD movie is coming out as well!

"DJ & The Fro" reminds us a bit of "Tosh.0" on Comedy Central, which premiered just a few weeks ago. The 404 guys think we should have jumped on to this bandwagon a long time. This is what we do already for the show every day!

Anyway, hope you all enjoy the abbreviated show along with our Michael Jackson commentary. He will be missed. Spend your weekend listening to your favorite MJ jam and reminisce about the fond memories you had while karaoking to "Billie Jean."