87 born · 62 peaked · 23 died · 12 blog posts
Born in 2008 87
- ↺009 Sound SystemAn electronic project whose tracks became the default sound of amateur YouTube because Au…
- ☠Advice AnimalsA face on a coloured background, two lines of Impact, one character trait. The industrial…
- ●Any%The speedrun category where only finishing counts, however you do it — and, since about 2…
- ●App StoreApple's software shop, opened on 10 July 2008 with 500 apps including a $999 'I Am Rich' …
- ●Be Me'>be me' — the opening line of a greentext, establishing that the narrator is the narrato…
- ●BlockedCut off entirely — 'blocked and reported', 'blocked so fast' — as the internet's ultimate…
- ◐BraidA platformer about rewinding time and a man called Tim looking for a princess, with paint…
- ●Call of Duty ZombiesTreyarch's co-op survival mode, first hidden as an after-credits bonus in World at War in…
- ▲Cereal GuyThe rage-comic character who reads a newspaper, hears something implausible and sprays hi…
- ◐CleverbotThe website chatbot that answered by reusing what earlier visitors had said, launched in …
- ●Context CollapseEvery audience you have, in the same room, reading the same post. Named by academics and …
- ●Copyright StrikeA formal takedown against a YouTube channel — a copyright strike — three of which, within…
- ☠Courage WolfA snarling wolf on a colour-wheel background dispensing violent encouragement in Impact f…
- ☠CuilA search engine that launched claiming a larger index than Google and returned pictures o…
- ◐Dash (Tumblr)The Tumblr dashboard, shortened — 'my dash' — as the feed of the platform that had feelin…
- ●Disaster GirlA small girl smiling at the camera as a house burns behind her, as the image for anyone q…
- ◐DropboxThe folder that syncs — Drew Houston's 2008 answer to forgetting a USB stick, which grew …
- ◐DubsA post number ending in repeated digits — 22, 777, 8888 — treated as a lucky omen and gre…
- ◐EvernoteThe elephant-logo note app, launched in June 2008 with the promise to 'remember everythin…
- ●FanchantThe synchronised shout of members' names and phrases at set points in a K-pop song — the …
- ☠FantageA browser world of anime-style avatars, a boardwalk of shops, a level system based on wea…
- ●FoomThe sound of an intelligence explosion: an AI that improves itself, then improves itself …
- ◐Fox Only, No Items, Final DestinationThe caricature of the competitive Smash player's rules — one flat stage, no items, the be…
- ●Ganbatte'Do your best', 'hang in there' — the Japanese encouragement that fandom lifted from spor…
- ●Grandparent ScamA phone fraud in which a caller claims to be a grandchild in trouble — arrested, hospital…
- ●GreentextA story told in green lines beginning with '>' — '>be me, >go to shop' — as the board's s…
- ●GrimdarkFiction where everything is bleak, everyone is morally compromised and hope is a rookie m…
- ●HBD'Happy birthday' — the acronym of the Facebook wall, where from about 2008 the notificati…
- ●HaulShowing the camera what you bought — the bags, the try-on, the price — as a YouTube genre…
- ☠HipsterA person who liked things before you did, identified by a beard and denied by everyone. D…
- ◐Implying'>implying' — the greentext reply that mocks an assumption by stating it: '>implying anyo…
- ●Incognito ModeChrome's private-browsing window, launched in December 2008 with a little spy in a hat, w…
- ●Instrumental ConvergenceThe argument that almost any goal, pursued by a sufficiently capable agent, implies the s…
- ◐Left 4 DeadFour survivors, a horde of zombies and an AI director that decided when to hurt you. Valv…
- ●Like, Comment, SubscribeThe three-part request at the end of every YouTube video — 'like, comment and subscribe' …
- ▲Literal Music VideoA music video re-sung with new lyrics that describe, deadpan, exactly what is happening o…
- ●LossA four-panel webcomic about a miscarriage, from a gaming comic that was never serious bef…
- ●Messi vs Ronaldo DebateThe fifteen-year argument about which of two footballers is better, conducted in comment …
- ◐Mid or FeedThe threat, typed in a MOBA lobby, that the speaker will play the middle lane or delibera…
- ◐Mods Are Asleep, Post Cats'Mods are asleep, post X' — the call to post forbidden content while the moderators are a…
- ◐Mods AsleepPost whatever the rules forbid, because the enforcers are in bed. Faded as moderation sto…
- ☠Moshi MonstersA British browser world in which children adopted a monster, solved daily puzzles and col…
- ●Natural Disaster SurvivalA Roblox game in which players stand on a small map and wait to see whether the round's d…
- ●OTW'On the way' — the acronym one sends from the sofa, which mid-2000s texting created and w…
- ●ObbyAn obstacle course, in Roblox: a sequence of platforms, lava and kill-bricks that a playe…
- ●PC Master RaceThe PC gamer's self-mocking (then unironic, then self-mocking again) title, coined as a j…
- ●Pause'Pause' — said after an accidental double entendre to flag it, as the successor to a wors…
- ☠Pet SocietyA Facebook game in which the player kept a round pet in a house, visited friends' pets an…
- ☠PhilosoraptorA velociraptor, thinking, captioned with a pseudo-profound question — 'if you enjoy wasti…
- ●PhotobombAppearing uninvited in a stranger's photograph. Given a permanent place in the language b…
- ☠Pixie HollowA Disney browser world in which players were fairies in Tinker Bell's valley, with talent…
- ●Platinum TrophyThe top trophy on PlayStation, awarded for earning every other trophy in a game, introduc…
- ☠PlayStation HomeA 3D lobby where avatars queued to bowl. Shut in 2015 with almost no one noticing, which …
- ▲QWOPA browser game in which Q, W, O and P control a sprinter's thighs and calves independentl…
- ☠Rage ComicCrude faces in panels, drawn badly on purpose. The last meme format that required its aud…
- ▲Rage GuyThe crudely drawn screaming head that closed the first rage comic in 2008 — a four-panel …
- ●Romance ScamFraud conducted through a fake romantic relationship, usually online, in which the belove…
- ◐RootingThe Android version of jailbreaking — gaining administrator access to your own phone so y…
- ●SauceA request for where an image came from. Now asked about everything, and answered about al…
- ●Ship WarA fight between fans over which characters should be together, conducted with charts, fan…
- ▲Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)Beyoncé and two dancers in black and white, in leotards, performing choreography that peo…
- ●SolarpunkGreen roofs, art nouveau curves, windmills, a solar sail and a society that fixed things …
- ●Source?'Source?' — the one-word demand for evidence, which is sometimes a request and usually an…
- ◐SpelunkyA man with a whip descends through caves that are different every time, and a shopkeeper …
- ●Split (Speedrun)A checkpoint in a speedrun at which the timer records the elapsed time, and the column of…
- ▲SporeWill Wright's 2008 game about evolving a species from cell to galaxy, whose creature crea…
- ☠Spursy'Spursy' — to lose a winnable thing in a characteristically Tottenham way — the adjective…
- ●Straya'Straya' — Australia, as its citizens say it and as the internet spells it when captionin…
- ▲Street Fighter IVThe sequel that returned after nine years and revived the fighting game genre and its tou…
- ☠SwagConfidence, as an accessory. The word of 2011, worn on hats in 2012, and explained by gra…
- ●SwattingCalling armed police to a stranger's address as a prank. The only entry here with a mansl…
- ●TBF'To be fair' — the acronym that softens a disagreement before it lands, born on late-2000…
- ●TIL'Today I learned' — the prefix for a fact you found on the internet and are now presentin…
- ●Tech Support ScamA fraud in which 'Microsoft' phones to say your computer has a virus, or a pop-up screams…
- ▲The Lazer CollectionDom Fera's 2008 series of animated sketches in which anyone, at any moment, fires a laser…
- ▲The World's Hardest GameA red square moves through blue circles to a green zone, collecting yellow coins, and thi…
- ●Throwaway AccountAn account created for one confession, then abandoned — a throwaway — as Reddit's mechani…
- ▲TrollfaceA grin drawn in MS Paint that meant the whole thing was a setup. One of the few memes wit…
- ●WBU'What about you' — the return question, in three letters, that keeps a text conversation …
- ☠Wenger OutThe banner, the hashtag, and the grudge — 'Wenger Out' — from Arsenal supporters wanting …
- ●WhataboutismAnswering a criticism with a different criticism — 'what about…' — as a Cold War term the…
- ◐White KnightA man who defends a woman online in the hope of reward — the white knight — as the 2008–1…
- ●Wizard101A children's online role-playing game of wizards duelling with cards, with a free opening…
- ◐Wombo ComboA combination of attacks from two teammates that ends a game in seconds, named after a 20…
- ●Work at a Pizza PlaceA Roblox game in which players take shifts as cashier, cook, delivery driver or boxer at …
- ◐World of GooBalls of goo with eyes are dragged into towers and bridges to reach a pipe, and the lefto…
- ▲YouTube AnnotationsThe clickable text boxes, arrows and speech bubbles laid over a YouTube video — annotatio…
Peaked in 2008 62
- ●404 (Slang)'Not found', applied to a person — 'he's 404', 'brain 404' — as the error code that becam…
- ☠Advice DogA puppy on a rainbow background giving terrible guidance. Spawned an entire taxonomy of a…
- ◐Asterisk Action*hugs* — an action in asterisks, from IRC's /me command into every chatroom, as the way t…
- ●BFF'Best friends forever' — the declaration, from 1990s slang and a sitcom into text messagi…
- ●BanhammerThe moderator's power of removal, as a tool. The only weapon in this record that the peop…
- ☠BeboThe British teenager's MySpace, sold to AOL for $850 million and bought back for $1 milli…
- ◐BitTorrentBram Cohen's 2001 protocol for downloading a file in pieces from everyone who already has…
- ▲BloxorzA rectangular block is rolled across a floating grid of tiles and has to drop into a squa…
- ▲Call of Duty 4: Modern WarfareThe Call of Duty that left the Second World War and invented the modern multiplayer templ…
- ↺CaramelldansenA loop of two anime girls waving their hands over their heads, set to a sped-up 2001 Swed…
- ☠Ceiling CatA cat looking through a hole in a ceiling, captioned as God — 'Ceiling Cat is watching yo…
- ☠Club PenguinA snowy island of penguins where a generation learned to type and to be banned. Closed by…
- ◐Colon Three:3 — a cat's mouth, sideways, as the emoticon for cuteness, mischief or a specific kind o…
- ◐CraigslistCraig Newmark's list of San Francisco events, started as an email in 1995 and a website i…
- ●CrysisCrytek's 2007 shooter, built to a specification no PC of the time could run at full setti…
- ☠DiggThe front page of the internet until version 4 shipped and the users left in a single wee…
- ●DofusA turn-based tactical MMORPG drawn in Flash by a small studio in northern France, with a …
- ◐Double PostPosting the same message twice by accident — the double post — as the forum era's small s…
- ☠FAILA single word stamped on a picture of something going wrong. Ran an entire blog empire an…
- ▲I Can Has CheezburgerThe site that turned lolcats into a business with a headcount. Still online; nobody has n…
- ▲I Wanna Be the GuyA small boy called The Kid tries to become The Guy through a set of levels that kill him …
- ▲Indian ThrillerA dance scene from the Indian film Donga, given English subtitles that phonetically appro…
- ●JK'Just kidding' — the retraction that follows a joke that might not have landed, from AIM …
- ●LeecherSomeone who downloads without uploading — a leecher — as the file-sharing world's word fo…
- ▲Little SuperstarA break-dancing sequence from a 1990 Tamil film, performed by the short-statured actor kn…
- ☠LolcatCat photograph plus deliberately broken grammar. Taught the web that a caption is a langu…
- ☠LolrusA walrus with a bucket, and the saga — 'I has a bucket', 'NOOO they be stealin my bucket'…
- ◐LulzLaughs, in the plural, at someone's expense — 'for the lulz' — as the 2000s' explanation …
- ▲MySpaceCustomisable profiles, autoplay music and a friend called Tom. Lost every song uploaded b…
- ◐Ninja LootingTaking a rare item from a boss's corpse before the group could decide who should have it,…
- ☠OrkutGoogle's first social network, enormous in Brazil and India and invisible to the people w…
- ●OtakuThe Japanese word for an obsessive fan — originally a pejorative, coined in a 1983 magazi…
- ▲Penguin of Doom'hi every1 im new!!!!!!! *holds up spork*' — the opening of a mid-2000s copypasta written…
- ●PhotoshopAdobe's image editor, first sold in February 1990, and the reason no photograph on the in…
- ▲Pics or It Didn't HappenA demand for proof, back when a picture was proof. Retired as a phrase when it became cle…
- ▲PortalA three-hour puzzle game in a testing facility, with a gun that made two connected holes …
- ↺RickrollA bait link resolving to Rick Astley. Has died and been resurrected more times than any o…
- ●Rule 34If it exists, there is pornography of it. Stated as a joke, upheld as a law, never once f…
- ▲Rules of the InternetA numbered list of joke commandments, of which only 34 and 63 survived. The rest are of i…
- ●STFU'Shut the f*** up' — the internet's oldest way of ending a discussion, from IRC to every …
- ☠Scene KidNeon, side fringes, raccoon tails and a MySpace name with an X in it. The last subculture…
- ▲Shoop Da WhoopA crudely drawn face with enormous lips that fires a beam from its mouth while shouting '…
- ●Sock PuppetA second account pretending to be a stranger who agrees with you. A wooden practice that …
- ☠StumbleUponA button that took you to a random good page. Every feed since has been StumbleUpon witho…
- ●TMI'Too much information' — the reply to a detail nobody asked for, from 1990s forums into e…
- ▲Techno VikingA shirtless, muscled man at Berlin's 2000 Fuckparade who stops a fight, points down the s…
- ◐The Cake Is a LieGraffiti from a 2007 game warning that the promised reward does not exist, which became t…
- ◐The Game (You Just Lost)A game with one rule: if you think about The Game, you lose, and must announce it. Spread…
- ▲The Impossible QuizA Flash quiz of 110 questions that cannot be answered by knowing anything, only by guessi…
- ▲The Mysterious Ticking NoiseNeil Cicierega's 2007 puppet sketch in which Snape, Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione and Harry c…
- ●TrackmaniaTime-trial racing on tracks you built from blocks, with no collisions and a leaderboard, …
- ▲Tunak Tunak TunA 1998 Daler Mehndi song whose video green-screens four copies of the singer over compute…
- ●Twelve Days of Christmas (Straight No Chaser)An a cappella group's arrangement of the carol that keeps derailing into other songs. Wen…
- ☠Wall PostA public message left on someone's profile for everyone to read. Replaced by the Timeline…
- ◐WebkinzA plush toy with a code on the tag that unlocked a virtual version of itself in a browser…
- ▲WeegeeA stiff, dead-eyed sprite of Luigi from the 1993 educational game Mario Is Missing!, whic…
- ▲Wii SportsTennis, bowling, golf, baseball and boxing played by waving a remote, packed in with the …
- ☠Wisdom of CrowdsGroups guessing better than experts. Held up for ox-weighing and collapsed for everything…
- ☠ZuneMicrosoft's iPod, launched in November 2006 in brown, with a Wi-Fi song-sharing feature t…
- ▲iPod'A thousand songs in your pocket' — Apple's music player, announced in October 2001 with …
- ☠iTunesApple's music program, launched in January 2001, whose store from 2003 sold songs for 99 …
- ●kk'Okay' — twice, for some reason — as the gaming chat's acknowledgement, and the record's …
Died in 2008 23
- ☠Chocolate RainA baritone leaving the microphone to breathe. Died when Dr Pepper hired him to sing about…
- ☠Chuck Norris FactsHyperbolic claims about a martial artist's power, generated in their thousands. Died when…
- ▲Command & Conquer: Red AlertAn alternate-history Second World War in which Einstein removes Hitler and the Soviets in…
- ↺Crash BandicootAn orange marsupial spinning through crates in a 3D corridor, built by a small studio as …
- ▲CyberspaceSomewhere else that you went when you logged on. Died when there stopped being a here to …
- ☠Dial-up HandshakeThe shriek two modems made agreeing to talk. The only sound in this dictionary that every…
- ☠Don't Tase Me BroA protester shouting the sentence at police as he was tased. Yale's most memorable quote …
- ☠FramesA page made of several pages in windows that scrolled independently, none of which could …
- ☠Haxor'Hacker', in leetspeak — 'h4x0r' — as the late-1990s word for a skilled computer user, sa…
- ▲Hurra TorpedoA Norwegian band who play covers on kitchen appliances, hitting chest freezers and cooker…
- ☠Leave Britney AloneA tearful defence filmed under a bedsheet, watched two million times in one day. The firs…
- ▲LeetspeakNumbers standing in for letters to evade filters and signal membership. Ended when your a…
- ↺Marquee TagText that scrolled sideways across the page for no reason. Outlived the blink tag by pret…
- ↺Mortal KombatDigitised actors, a spine-ripping fatality and a moral panic. The 1992 arcade game's home…
- ▲NetiquetteThe idea that there were manners online and that they could be taught. Filed as a fossil …
- ☠Netscape NavigatorThe browser that was the web in 1995 — 80 per cent of users, a $2 billion IPO that starte…
- ☠O RLY?A snowy owl asking whether you were serious. The first image macro with a call and respon…
- ▲SmarterChildThe AIM buddy that answered questions about the weather, the cinema and the news, and end…
- ▲Smosh Pokémon ThemeTwo teenagers lip-syncing the English Pokémon theme in a bedroom. It became the most view…
- ☠Spacer GIFA one-pixel transparent image stretched to hold a layout together. The whole visual web w…
- ☠Table LayoutBuilding a page out of nested spreadsheet cells because there was nothing else. Every des…
- ▲WarezPirated software, with a z. The scene, the couriers, the NFO files, the ASCII art; a whol…
- ☠w00tA cheer, with zeroes. Word of the Year in 2007 and never typed sincerely again after the …
From the blog, 2008
Google: StormFront + WorldNetDaily = 1,450 hits31 Dec 2008
Yellow Cat Not Found [PIC]31 Dec 2008
Does Amazon Censor its Customer Reviews? [PIC]31 Dec 2008
I Love to Code [PIC]31 Dec 2008
Microsoft's Hot Search Trends According to Google [PIC]31 Dec 2008
Future Will Be Awesome [PIC]31 Dec 2008
Are Ebay Users Really That Stupid? [PIC]31 Dec 2008
Funny Browsers Comparison: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera or Safari [PIC]31 Dec 2008
Reddit Effect On Other Servers [PIC]31 Dec 2008
Yahoo Answers: Would you proud to tell people "My Dad's a porn star? [PIC]31 Dec 2008
Google's 2009 - New Year Logo [PIC]31 Dec 2008
Kevin Rose's Response: Don't Take Life So Serious, It's Just Internet [PIC]31 Dec 2008