Its amazing how fast a video can travel around the globe and back. Remember when we used to get those chain emails that encouraged us to “forward to ten friends in the next 24-hours or something dramtically bad would happen to us?” Fortunately for most, those emails are a thing of the past. However, the premise remains the same for videos that go “viral”. Videos, whether funny, dramtic or just plain odd circulate the web at light speed. But how do they do it? Recently the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published Viral Videos ensnare millions in their Net, a great article on just this subject.
Since YouTube launched in 2005 and made video sharing part of pop culture, viral videos have quickly become the latest mutation in mass media.