A click and a smile.

Counting clicks. It's the web 2.0 method of voting. None of this ancient calling in for American Idol or actually having to go somewhere and cast a ballot. No, you can vote anything into popularity by the simple click of a mouse. 

I learned this firsthand. Today. Sort of. 

If you have checked your e-mail in the last month or so, you've gotten a few messages that I've been posting things-the internet equivalent of using one of those ancient thumb tacks-to a website. I'm adding content in the true vein of the 'User Generated Content' that so aptly describes much of what is online. People all over the world post things-videos, comments, music, podcasts-to websites available to anyone with an internet connection. 

In the past months I/we have posted a Christmas video, a little video we/I affectionately called Tabbersacci and then a cool little spot that Nick and I entered into an online ad contest for Nestle's 100 Grand candy bar. 

Anyway, as these items are posted from all over the world, people also from all over the world can view or read or listen to them. Most websites have counters that tabulate how many clicks or views (I'm speaking in YouTube lingo here) a particular post has received. For example, if you and I click on Tabbersacci, a little label under the title shows that the video has been watched twice. Pretty simple.

 

I've noticed lately that some of the lesser-known posts (videos especially) that really are not well produced or 'made' have a ton of hits. Now, call me a skeptic, but I know for a fact that 7,000 people have not watched a three year old from Hackensack ride their trike down the driveway. Ah, but the users are not dumb (they did have to get their video to the site, now didn't they?) They know the power of the click. A click here, a click there. Everywhere and everyone a click click. Before you know it, this little kid is a YouTube rockstar with thousands of hits. 

Now there is a phenomenon called 'viral' out there. It means that when a video is interesting or captivates the masses, it gets passed around. Kind of like the flu-that I avoided this year because of my flu shot. As videos are passed along-most of the really good ones are usually funny-it becomes like the flu, lots of people get it. 

And so I decided to experiment-with Tabbersacci. If you go to my YouTube homepage (here), it shows that Tabbersacci has been viewed 284 times. Not really so. Because I took 5 minutes earlier in the day and then another 4 minutes just a bit ago, I was able to boost the number of views by 42. And it takes YouTube a few hours to update the counting. I'm just one person. I know there are others like me. And there are far more out there who want to be just a little bit of a rock star. They're the ones who send out e-mails desperate for views. And then sit at the computer for hours just clicking away becoming more and more popular with each push on the mouse. 

Crazy isn't it? Now if you send Tabbersacci to ten of your friends and ask politely for them to send it to ten of their friends...