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=11200092Universal 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.