The Memelog

This is pretty comprehensive. It's a log of all the Internet Memes (read: Viral Media), cataloged based on when they were first created and placed onto a time-line.

This works as a pretty good example of how quickly something fades out of the public conscience - I remember maybe a third of the memes that came out in the past couple of years. Also, see how fast each meme gets replaced - there's a bunch of new ones every month or so. It's speeding up; the past 3 or 4 years are packed.

Daunting, from a business perspective, isn't it? To come up with something viral is hard enough, but now it's clear you have maybe a month to really capitalize before something new comes up. If you're lucky, there's a bunch of dead space after your arrival, and you might get a bit longer, but for the most part it's consistent.

Hey, at least it's not impossible. It's not like the odds are any worse with marketing offline - all I'm saying is, take it seriously.