Viral marketing is nothing at all like the destructive and malicious software that has so often wreaked havoc on the internet. It is so named not because of any kinship with computer viruses; rather, the name viral marketing comes from the way that the message is transmitted from user to user much the same way as a virus is transmitted from host to host.

In its ideal form, the results in an exponential distribution as one user can transmit the message to multiple other users who can then go on to transfer the message to another group of multiple users and so on. For this method of transmission to work, the advertisement must be something that the users enjoy and want to share with their friends and other members of their social networks. To accomplish this, viral

marketing has taken on a number of forms, from amusing videos to flash video games to innovate web sites.

Flash video games are a prominent vessel for viral marketing campaigns since the user enjoys playing them (if they are well made) and is likely to want to share the game with his or her friends. Flash is the ideal technology for viral marketing video games since it is

relatively easy to develop games, it integrates seamlessly with properly designed web pages, and it is common enough that most users will have the software necessary to play them.

Another great form of viral marketing is the funny or unusual video. Internet videos have gained a great deal of popularity in recent years as more users acquire high speed internet connections (forget about trying to watch most internet videos on dial up) and central internet video repositories such as YouTube and Google Video have increased in popularity.

Another form of viral marketing, and perhaps the most controversial, is using blogs or other web sites that appear to come from actual internet users. Such web sites might feature an interesting or amusing situation that grabs the attention of readers and encourages them to follow the blog or website for more information. This type of marketing typically spreads via word of mouth, email, message boards, and other

means of transmission. While these campaigns can generate a great deal of buzz and traffic, there is typically a customer backlash when the true nature of the campaign is discovered. Readers typically feel duped and lied-too when they discover that the interesting story that they have been following is actual a fabrication generated to market some product or service.