Just exactly how stupid are some people? "U-Tube" Mistaken for YouTube

[A HERETIC I AM]

From NPR;

This story was just broadcast on "All Things Considered" about a Tube machine builder - "Universal Tube" of Ohio getting mistaken for YouTube, the popular video hosting site.

This UTube, a small company with just 15 employees, has had its Web site, utube.com, since 1996. But over the past year, as the video site got popular, many Web-surfers trying to go to YouTube typed in the wrong address and wound up on this company's Web site, which started getting a lot more hits.

"It slowly built," Girkins says. "We thought we were doing a great marketing job. But they weren't looking for us."

Before YouTube, Girkins says, there were about 1,000 real customers visiting utube.com each month. Today, he says, there are about 150,000 people a day typing "u tube" the wrong way, and winding up on his site.

"We couldn't keep our server up. That's what happened," he says.

Now here is the truly stupid part. Idiots misspell Youtube and end up on this small company's website, a website that has been around since the late 90's, and when they can't figure out how to upload or look at a video they seek (while looking at a website that is CLEARLY selling machinery) they leave nasty emails or fill out customer order forms in a nasty, mean spirited way.

Universal Tube has since filed a lawsuit against Google and its YouTube video site, seeking compensation for the time and expense the extra Web traffic is costing the business. For one thing, Girkins says, Universal Tube is now paying upwards of $1,700 a month for server space.

Visitor Hate Mail

As the lawsuit puts it, these unwanted visitors, "often fill out Plaintiff's sales request form, seeking more information in a vulgar and belligerent manner. Exhibit 1 is a message left by one visitor who asks, 'WHERE THE F*** ARE THE VIDEOS??? 1.5 BILLION DOLLARS FOR THIS PIECE OF S*** WEBSITE? GOOGLE GOT TAKEN.'"

According to UTube manager Laura Smirin, a lot of the phone calls and e-mails were very rude. "They were just nasty," Smirin says.

Girkins has hundreds of them on his computer in his office. He sits and scrolls through them: "Idiot, idiot, idiot," he reads. Some of the hate mail is about the lawsuit. Some YouTube enthusiasts seem to be worried that this equipment company might be threatening their favorite alternative video site, even though Google's YouTube is clearly the bigger company.

NPR story link below

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11200092

Universal Tube's website:
http://www.utube.com/ (Be mindful that this poor guy is being inundated with hits and his webhosting costs have gone through the roof)

So, just exactly how fucking stupid can people be? This just amazed me and i had to share.

[blogslut]

1. Wasted marketing opportunity

First off, the man should have taken some sort of steps to lessen the traffic before it got to $1700 a month. An interstitial warning page, telling the surfer that this was not the YouTube site, along with a link to Youtube, would probably save him a lot of headache.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. The NPR story indicated he was at least using banner ads now to defray the costs..

but whether or not it is a wasted opportunity, the stupidity of some internet users is what this story brings to light.

Too bad stupid doesn't hurt

[Ghost in the Machine]

5. my hosting company said that for one of my $3.99/mo hosting packages

that my site could handle 5 million hits per month. Now if I could just get the traffic!

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. Call your site "OyuTube.com" and pick up on the other misspellings! n/t

[blogslut]

8. Yeah

My guess is Mr. UTube is getting ripped off by his host as well.

[Ghost in the Machine]

16. I'd say he's getting ripped off big time by a hosting company.

I don't understand how or why people pay so much, when all you have to do is a quick search to find affordable domain names and hosting. I can register a domain name, plus get 2 months hosting at GoDaddy for $10.14 ... then $3.99/mo afterwards, no long term, pay by the month, cancel any time. Renew the domain after a year for less than $10.

[Catherine Vincent]

2. I feel bad for the company but those emails are funny.

You know those are from a bunch of juvenile idiots.

[karlrschneider]

4. Well, I can sympathize with them but how the fuck is youtube or google at fault?

I smell an ambulance chasing lawyer in the background...
:eyes:

[jdadd]

6. Heres a pdf of some of his hate mail....

http://www.utube.com/pdf/ComplaintAttachments.pdf

[karlrschneider]

15. One of them spelled it correctly in hir "message"

good grief
:eyes:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

9. If You Hear Youtube On The Radio, TV, Or Generic Conversation, If You're Not Overly Internet Savvy

why would that make you a moron to come home, recall the website name, and type in 'utube' instead? I can totally understand that and don't think them to be 'fucking stupid' at all. I do consider it a bit silly that some left hate mail, but obviously the majority of users who found their way there in error didn't. Are you telling me you've never typed the name of a website wrong, based on what you heard rather than what you've seen?

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. I have absolutely made a mistake when typing a URL

but if it takes me to a website that is clearly not what i am looking for, i close it and try again.

I do consider someone to be fucking stupid if they type in an address and upon landing at a site that was not what they were looking for, taking the time to type an insult to a totally innocent 3rd party. THAT is the fucking stupid part. A mistake is just that - a mistake. Taking the time to insult someone in no way at fault for the mistake is fucking stupid.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

12. I'd Wager That Most Of The Emails Are False Complaints, From Users Who Knew Full Well It Was The

wrong site. That's what I gleaned from them anyway.

But as far as the traffic, chances are that once they got there they realized their error and turned back, no?

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. Agreed

The story mentions the issue of his increased traffic. Obviously he isnt getting 100,000+ nastygrams a day. I don't accuse every one of the people that made a mistake to be idiots, just the ones that took the time to indicate they were idiots by writing to the guy.

[ET Awful]

10. Try going to nissan.com sometime and read the story of the owner

of the site who was sued by Nissan Motors.

There was also a Grateful Dead cover band called Slipknot who'd been around for over 15 years that wer forced to change their name because of idiotic kids visiting their website and getting pissed off because they weren't the "metal" band (I hesitate to call them that, but for lack of a better term), Slipknot!

[smtpgirl]

14. I heard that on NPR this evening on my way home from work

What just digs at me is that there are "some" individuals that just DON'T get it!!

www.utube.com is full of machinery, not videos.

They must be Repbulicans attempting to access www.youtube.com.

I heard that Laura had to open some of those emails, while the owner was away.

Those people sending "anonymous" profane emails can be caught.

Their IP address is in the header of the email, RUBES!!

[rucky]

17. How do U spell it, again? n/t