“A taxidermied cat being that’s been turned into a helicopter — that’s clearly going to be successful, right? Because it’s got that element of shock, it’s got that element of a cat, you know, it’s basically just tailored to the Internet,” he said. I am laughing at this point.

Great read by Andrew Phelps on Gawker’s new man-machine Neetzan Zimmerman who’s superhero skill is finding the odd pieces from the depth of the internet that are bound to go viral. He churns out 13-14 posts a day, clocking up pageviews, leaving other Gawker editors to focus on longer, more meaty stories.

Link: What makes something go viral? The Internet according to Gawker’s Neetzan Zimmerman

Here’s Zimmerman’s own story titled “This Is How You Make Something Go Viral: An Impractical Guide”

In short order I was able to track content from the point of inception to pre-mainstream saturation. I learned to recognize when items were reaching that critical stage of going from radar blip to full-scale red alert.