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Cyber Monday Doesn't Exist

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the whole-lotta-hype dept.

xsspd2004 writes "Despite a huge amount of hype, the Monday after Thanksgiving is historically only the 12th-biggest online shopping day of the year. Do a Google search on "Cyber Monday," and you get as many as 779,000 results. Not a bad haul for a term that was created just a week and a half ago."

8 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Are you trying to say... by lbrandy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are you trying to say that our media is creating and over-hyping something that doesn't necessarily exist to make for better headlines? Noooooo... not our media....

    1. Re:Are you trying to say... by MCraigW · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Walmart's credit card screen wasn't encrypted so I canceled out. Called customer service and not only did I get a real, well spoken, knowledgeable person in under a minute, but they pulled up exactly what I had tried to buy, took my card information, and got my unit shipped

      Yeah, that knowledgable person just entered your card information in the same form that you wouldn't use...

  2. Google index by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, most of the hits on the google search are from msg board posts that actually say "Wanna cyber, Monday?"

  3. An alternative name... by ysegalov · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the article:
    They quickly discarded suggestions such as Black Monday (too much like Black Friday), Blue Monday (not very cheery), and Green Monday (too environmentalist), and settled on Cyber Monday.

    I would call it - 'November's fools day'.

  4. O rly? by parasonic · · Score: 5, Funny

    I somehow doubt that google has spidered and indexed ~800k sites/pages containing such phrase, in that time period.

    Somebody has a case of the cyber-Mondays!

  5. Love Day by farfisa69 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Marge: "Happy Love Day everyone!"
    Lisa: "Come on Mom! The stores just invented this holiday because they wanted to make money!"
    Homer: "Lisa don't you ruin another love day!"

    --
    Meat is murder, I eat chicken.
  6. Re:Uh by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you're doubting the freshness of the term, try searching in Google Groups instead. A usenet search can often give you a better picture of how a term or phrase evolved through culture.

    "Black Friday" - 11,000 results dating back to at least 1993.

    "Cyber Monday" - 20 results, all but one were indeed posted within the past week. The other one is in Russian, and doesn't actually appear to contain the term.

    So, if there was such a thing as "Cyber Monday" prior to this Thanksgiving, nobody seemed to know about it, and they sure as heck weren't discussing it.

    --
    "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
  7. Re:Talliwhacker Tuesday! by jrumney · · Score: 5, Funny
    Alas, I cannot participate, as I suffer from severe impotency.

    Please contact me urgently about a large number of emails intended for you that have ended up in my inbox.