Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
177
 www.ideavirus.com
The Art of Creating an Ideavirus
So far, much of what we’ve discussed is science. Mathematical formulas, game theory,
categories of individuals. This is stuff you have to do well to allow your virus to take hold.
And as the understanding of propagating viruses increases, companies will get better and
better at the tactics.
The hard part, though, is building the virus in the first place. The hard part is inventing an
idea that’s so compelling, so ¡Wow! that it spreads through the hive with high velocity,
converting everyone in its path.
How is it that some ideas move so quickly while others just languish? Why did the Apple
Newton fail so badly, while the Palm took off just a few years later?
Caveat: If I knew the answer, I’m not sure I would tell you! To date, no one has come up
with a repeatable formula for creating viruses in a reliable way. There are precious few people
who are serial virus starters.
My hope was that this would be a long chapter, and I could answer your big question about
how
. Alas, I don’t know. I know it when I see it, but I fear the rest is art.
Which means you win by trying. And failing. Test, try, fail, measure, evolve, repeat, persist.
It’s old fashioned and hot and dusty and by no means guaranteed to work. Sigh.

---

Unleashing the Ideavirus
178
 www.ideavirus.com
Is He Really More Evil Than Satan Himself?
The Google.com search engine is perhaps the most effective and accurate way to search the
web. Why? Because instead of reading every site and trying to understand the content of
every page, Google just reads the 
links
to sites, and selects the pages that plenty of other sites
link to. This way, popular pages rise to the top, and it’s far harder to trick the engine into
pointing to your page by loading up on clever phrases.
Anyway, a few months ago, if you typed, “More Evil Than Satan Himself” into the Google
search engine, the top link it would return was Microsoft.com. Other links that followed
involved mostly Bill Gates.
How did this happen? How was it that enough hackers, nerds and online intelligentsia
building web pages had a strong enough opinion about Bill & Co. that they would go to the
trouble of creating links to Microsoft that used the words like evil and Satan?
Regardless of the dynamics of the virus itself, there’s no question that it’s pervasive, that it
will take years to erase and that it cost Microsoft dearly. By filling the vacuum and creating
an ideavirus of Microsoft as an all-powerful demon, trouncing anyone who came into its
path, the company’s critics brought the Justice Department knocking on its door.
Intel and Cisco have similar market share in the computer space. McDonald’s has similar
impact in the fast food business. There are plenty of companies that could have attracted
attention. But because Microsoft (through its actions—and inaction) spawned a virus, it was
easier for its critics to get the attention of the government. Regardless of your position on the
case, it’s clear that the negative virus (and Microsoft’s actions that reinforced that impression)
affected the judge’s ruling.

---