Friday Five: Whatever happened to…

Do you ever think about old friends and ask yourself, “I wonder whatever happened to…?” (Well, in the days before they all joined Facebook, I mean.) That’s how I think about some topics I’ve blogged about in the past. I wonder how services, products or online memes that seemed so relevant at the time are doing today.

So today’s Friday Five is a trip to the past to see how some of the Internet things that once caught my attention are now faring.

Whatever happened to….

1. The LOLinator? O hai! I first blogged about this website — which converts any website into LOLspeak (the language of LOLcats) — back in May 2008. I’m happy to say that the LOLinator iz still in ur website, stealin ur codez.
2. Hatebook? The anti-social networking site first caught my attention in January 2008, and I referenced Hatebook in a blog post linking to a bold (but incorrect) prediction that 2008 would be the year we fall out of love with Facebook. Well, Hatebook is still out there, but it seems that Facebook is stealing the moniker. In a recent post (Facebook devolves into dark web of anonymous hate speech), Mike Adams writes that “Facebook has … brought out the worst in many people, devolving into a tangled web of anonymous hate speech directed to anything and everything within reach. Hence the new nickname for Facebook… Hatebook.” I wonder what Hatebook thinks of that? (As for that 2008 prediction about Facebook losing ground, alumni futures blogger Andy Shaindlin is checking back from time to time on that post to remind the author that the fallout hasn’t happened yet. thanks for keeping ’em honest, Andy.)
3. Addict-o-matic? This dashboard for monitoring social and traditional media is still around. I was planning to use it more than I have (which, since discovering it in 2008, is zilch). Giving it a spin this morning, it still seems pretty spotty. I guess I’ll stick with Google News and Hootsuite as my main monitoring dashboards.
4. Knoyce? It was only a little more than a year ago that I blogged about this site — which billed itself as “something that is better than just nice.” I joined it, putzed around there for a week or two, found very little value or traction there, and wrote it off. Now the site is “currently under construction.” Is that better than just nice? Hmmmm.
5. Paying it forward? This post on five ways to make somebody’s day in the social media sphere is still relevant, I think. Why not make someone’s day and pay it forward right now?

Good weekend, all!