Here’s a meme we can really get behind. When Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the body’s lymphatic system, he was determined not to let it beat him. What’s the best way for a self-affirmed geek to stay positive? Start a meme!
Today people around the world began ‘Blaming Drew’s cancer’ for everything from the state of the economy to the fact they put spoiled milk in their coffee. If you want to join in start a tweet with “I #BlameDrewsCancer for…” All the tweets are being displayed at blamedrewscancer.com.
Watching all the tweets pop up on little placards across the site is a positive, life-affirming experience and we imagine that’s just what Drew needs right now.
You can find out more about Drew in a post from his friend Louis Gray here. Then go get blaming!
Written on 12th May 2009
10 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
This may be the cleverest/silliest Twitter scam yet. High up on Twitters current ‘trending’ topics list is #TwitterPornNames and as PCWorld points out, “what larger hole to patch than that of human error itself”.
The hashtag meme requests that users type in their “Twitter Porn Name” which is a combination of your first pet and the street your grew up on OR your mothers maiden name. All three of these are perfect candidates for security questions on most online accounts – don’t get involved.
If you have revealed any of these, change your questions immediately.
Below is an animated GIF which is popular on Twitter and a lot of blogs. You might take offense of the lighthearted way the author has chosen to display such epic and dramatic events. But looks past that and you see a mini documentary and different view on a story that has been told many times, but never like this.
More traditional thinkers might say that this is NOT the way to tell a story about World War II. I think a comedian/artist/story teller can use any form he likes as long as he gets the original concept across. Humor is a very normal tool for people to grasp dramatic and traumatic events.Â
I think this is the first time I watched a documentary about the events leading up to the second world war and followed what happened and who did what to whom.
This is more than just funny. It is a work of art.
A little more than 24 hours ago we posted a bookmarklet here titled TwitterKeys and then all hell broke loose. Here is what happened before we launched it and what has happened since.
On Tuesday evening, just as I was getting ready to go home, I noticed a Tweet on Twitter with a symbol in it which I hadn’t seen before. I copy pasted the symbol and Tweeted it:
Sander (@sandervdv) was working next to me and said “Hey, just open your Character Palette. There are tons of symbols there that you can copy paste”. I immediately did and then replied “Very cool, but kind of hard to find. Can’t we just put them all in a floating browser window so you can easily copy paste them while you are Twittering?”. Sander smiled and said “Sure, and I can even write a Bookmarklet so you can easily access it”.
Then I left the office and went home. At 8pm I opened my laptop and found Sander’s Bookmarklet code in my Inbox. I did a quick test with the help of a few Twitter users to see which symbols would work on all platforms and by 10 pm I uploaded the files, wrote a simple post with the details and launched the whole thing by Twittering the following line:
Immediately I noticed people starting to play with the characters and flowers, comets and stars flying all over Twitter. Within a few hours the Twitter founders found out about TwitterKeys and twittered about it:
Today we launched version 2 of TwitterKeys which displays even more characters. If you haven’t installed it yet do it now:
Drag this link to your browser
bookmarks toolbar: TwitterKeys
Here at The Next Web Blog we love to write about people working on Next Web technologies and services. But we also love to contribute a little ourselves from time to time. Hope you like what we do!
Written on 4th June 2009
1 COMMENT 
Here’s a meme we can really get behind. When Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the body’s lymphatic system, he was determined not to let it beat him. What’s the best way for a self-affirmed geek to stay positive? Start a meme!
Written on 3rd June 2009
Written on 2nd December 2008
Below is an animated GIF which is popular on Twitter and a lot of blogs. You might take offense of the lighthearted way the author has chosen to display such epic and dramatic events. But looks past that and you see a mini documentary and different view on a story that has been told many times, but never like this.
So within a few hours these 4 Big Twitter users promoted Twitterkeys to their combined 95,075 followers. The result? About 15,000 unique visitors to the 
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
