Today Show 24 July – Youtube Revenge

Revenge via You Tube is becoming common place as people find it a better way to communicate their noxious thoughts through a third-party medium rather than directly to someone’s face.

There are a couple of things I really like about this story. First, it goes to show that technology once again has a huge affect on a person’s everyday life. Second, a URL like You Tube is a great outlet to vent your frustrations at life (as long as you do nothing illegal on the clip!). Third, as in the case with a couple of the videos, it not only holds people accountable, it actually makes them do something about fixing a problem they might otherwise have ignored.

So, in case you missed these clips, here they are:
Clip 1 is of musician Dave Carroll who complained to United Airlines about his guitar being broken in transit. He asked for compensation, but to no avail. So he wrote a song and put it up on Youtube. 3.5 million hits later, he managed to garner an apology from the airline, plus a promise to donate some money to a charity. However, this didn’t stop the airlines share price dropping 10 percent over the bad publicity.

Then there was the case of Tricia Walsh Smith, a disgruntled housewife going through a divorce from her husband, multi-millionaire Philip Smith. Walsh-Smith didn’t have all the sympathy go her way, with some legal experts concerned about how putting her dirty laundry on the Internet could affect the outcome of divorce proceedings.

One of the funniest clips was when
Vincent Ferrari tried to cancel his AOL account and the trouble he had with AOL employee John, who was trying to find reasons why he should keep the account. After lots of back and forth, he finally got it cancelled, and in the long run, John lost his job.

Finally, there was the case of the
Irreplaceable iPod Battery whereby Casey Neistat went to replace his battery, only to be told by Apple that it would cost him the best part of US$250, so he might as well buy a new one. He ended up posting his story on Youtube, the end result being Apple calling him to tell him that they now had a battery replacement programme up and running.

Finally, this will be your last chance to see me at the Vaio Village at Westfield Bondi Junction this weekend. I’ll be there between 11.30 and 2pm, so I’ll hopefully see you there to talk about social networking, as well as any other tech issues you might have!