Shenthil Ranie’s Desk

Giants Website Prematurely Reveals Super Bowl Winner [PIC]

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:59:54 +0000

The New York Giants official website accidentally announced the winner of Super Bowl XLVI more than 24 hours before Sunday’s big game even started, by the look of images floating around the web.

The error was immortalized Saturday in this TwitPic screenshot (above), which Jeff Frias posted to Twitter. No signs of the mistake are left on the team’s site other than a reported link that leads to the image below:

The Giants have yet to publicly confirm whether this whammy is real or the handy-work of a prankster.

While online blunders have cost people their jobs in the past, this misstep — if real — shows that the Giants organization is unsurprisingly ready to financially capitalize on a possible win.

The tweeted image displays championship garb traditionally sold after national sporting contests. Giants quarterback Eli Manning and three other players are cropped into the image along with the Super Bowl’s most-coveted prize, the Vince Lombardi Trophy. The image is emblazoned with these words in all caps: “The Giants are Super Bowl champions!”

The Feb. 5 broadcast of the Giants vs. New England Patriots game kicks off at Indianapolis Lucas Oil Stadium at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be followed by many post-game breakdowns of the games and commercials. One Super Bowl post-game analysis will occur within an NBC-backed Google+ Hangout. Participants will dissect the commercials, which this year cost $3.5 million each.

Did you notice the premature winner’s announcement before it was taken down? Sound off below.

BONUS: 10 Athlete Gaffes Aided by Social Media

Online whammies in the sports world are not uncommon. Here are a few recent memorable digital mistakes.

Cappie Pondexter

After a tsunami devastated Japan this March, Cappie Pondexter of the WNBA’s New York Liberty tweeted, “What if God was tired of the way they treated their own people in there own country! Idk guys he makes no mistakes.” Later she continued hypothesizing with this tweet: “u just never knw! They did pearl harbor so you can’t expect anything less.” Predictably, Pondexter’s tweets sparked a strong backlash, and she eventually took to Twitter again, this time to apologize (left).

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Entertainment, football, sports, Super Bowl, trending

29 Meme-Inspired Movie Posters [PICS]

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:59:52 +0000

If Internet memes were turned into movies, their promotional posters might resemble the designs London-based Stefan van Zoggel conjured up.

“I took the context of the usually short-lived internet memes and virals, and translated that to simple film poster designs,” says van Zoggel on his Meme Movie Posters blog.

He has designed 29 meme-inspired posters so far. Below, you’ll find posters about Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” planking, Nyan Cat, Double Rainbow, Keyboard Cat, Shake Weight and a slew of other memes.

Which designs are your favorite of the bunch? Which new memes should inspire his future designs?

I would like to see movie posters about the Occupy Wall Street movement’s Casually Pepper Spray Everything Cop, NFL quarterback Tim Tebow‘s Tebowing and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s sweater vests.

Meme Movie Posters

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: art, memes, Movies, trending

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GE’s Beth Comstock: Social Media Redefines the Focus Group

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:55:59 +0000

Mashable’s Davos coverage is presented by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment.

GE’s Chief Marketing Officer Beth Comstock sat down with Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore to talk about her role leading business innovation at GE and how their using social media as part of their business model. This is part of Mashable and Scribd’s Documented@Davos, where they documented the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Comstock explained her job at GE as trying to new ways to bring their products to market. She explained it as “creating the jet engine, then creating the iTunes of jet engines to bring it to market.”

The jet engines Comstock is referring to will be able to “talk” to technicians, and even diagnose themselves. She said that GE is also investing in 3D printers for manufacturers to use themselves. Both these are examples of how the company wants to help others run their businesses better by making them more productive.

“At GE, we make things like turbines and jet engines. They’re not very sexy, when you think about your iPad, but they are the inventions that power the world,” Comstock said.

Social media is another way that Comstock is helping businesses work better together. She said GE is trying to help groups of professionals, such as doctors or service engineers at a power plant.

Comstock said that she also thinks social media use goes beyond just customer service or focus groups, allowing a circle of communication between customers and GE.

“We’re using it to redesign our customer service in our appliance business. We get to people early if they have a problem, but we can also do product development together, figure out what features people like,” she said. “I believe business is truly social.”

What do you think about GE’s innovations? Let us know in the comments.

Documented@Davos

Mashable is working with Scribd on a program called Documented@Davos, where we’ll be interviewing young leaders, technology pioneers and forward-thinking organizations to share the important issues being discussed at Davos with everyone online. You can follow along with the hashtag #DavosDocs.

Here’s the lineup of leaders who will be interviewed for Documented@Davos:

Coverage presented by BMW i

Mashable’s Davos coverage is presented by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment.

More About: Digital Davos, features, GE, mashable

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