So we’ve had our fun with Facebook over the years (Why We’re Suing Facebook For $25 Million In Statutory Damages, Republican PR Director Calls Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg “totally full of sh*t”, Randi Threatens a Bar Bouncer). But in general these things are supposed to flow one way – we mess with them, they take it gracefully.
Today that changed. They punk’d us, and we fell for it. Hard.
Earlier today TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid noticed something new on Facebook. When viewing any photo, it showed a “Fax This Photo” link on the bottom right of the screen. Ridiculous? Yes. But everyone in the TechCrunch network saw it. He fired off an email to Facebook at 5:05 pm. When they didn’t respond, he posted at 5:29: Facebook Now Lets You Fax Your Photos. I Have No Idea Why Anyone Would Want To Do This.
Things went downhill from there.
At 5:47 Facebook PR emailed and said “We already faxed you a statement on this??? Didn’t you get it?”
Then they emailed again at 5:51, saying:
Hey Jason,
We’ve been testing this product since 1992, and we are thinking that we will be launching this “innovative” feature at TechCrunch 50.
What do you think???
Uh oh. Our nose hairs started to twitch.
Then we asked a bunch of people outside of our network. Not a single other person said they saw the fax-a-photo feature.
Definitely not a good sign.
Jason then called Facebook PR. Jaime Schopflin took the call and, apparently, couldn’t stop laughing for five minutes. Between laughs while catching her breath she mentioned something about this being a joke, that nobody but us could see it, and that they were placing bets around the office on how long before we noticed it and posted. And something else about teaching us to contact them before posting.
So, bottom line, don’t expect to see this feature actually launch. Unless you come to work for TechCrunch, I guess. We still see it.
You won this round, Facebook. Enjoy your victory.
Oh, by the way, the feature works. Here’s what it looks like:
pwned.
indeed.
Things like this however is why I love our industry. You wouldn’t see this happen in too many other places.
Good times
that’s because those of us in other industries don’t have the luxury of vc money dripping from the walls without generating one cent in profit. we actually spend the bulk of our day working. to make money. to pay bills. or to stave of being fired in the midst of a recession where barely anyone is hiring. facebook employees should try it some time instead of waiting for another sucker to invest millions.
poster boys for the recession right here. can’t turn a profit, but can sure burn cash.
Best comment ever.
+ infinite
So true… hilarious. Facebook does have revenue, most likely no profits. But who needs profit to be valuable… ask youtube.
at least they have the decency to not go public
Facebook actually charged $1.50 per fax. So they really weren’t losing any money. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/10/facebook-now-lets-you-fax-your-photos-i-have-no-idea-why-anyone-would-want-to-do-this/
>>we actually spend the bulk of our day working. to make money. to pay bills.
yeah, you spend the bulk of your day working extremely hard… like commenting on TechCrunch.
puh-leez. get off the goddamn soapbox, you might hurt yourself trying to stand on your own tonsils as you’re climbing up.
ps – Facebook was cashflow profitable as of last quarter, so please go help yourself to a steaming cup of STFU.
TC must come up with the perfect payback!
we’re asking our lawyers if it’s ok if we stand outside their offices and tazer them as they leave. apparently that’s not ok though. we’re checking on water balloons now instead.
I don’t LOL often when reading TC comments, but that Mr. Arrington, was funny as hell!
Pro tip: Freeze the water balloons.
My coworkers are looking at me wondering why I’m laughing. Good one Facebook. The tazering is a nice touch too.
Fill with pudding. Makes a nicer mess. `.~
I like the fact that it actually works. If you want to retaliate, let the faxing begin.
The best part is you blog when you get pwned too
TC Rocks!
Nice touch to make it functional. Almost foolproof…
scammed.
So good…
Ok, I’m officially going to start using Facebook more.
And a good reason why you should surf sites using an anonymizer or an dynamically-assigned IP address not associated with TechCrunch.
That doesn’t really work when you’re logged on to the website. Especially FB.
The “techcrunch network” refers to a FB network.
Hey TechCrunch,
Google is launching an optimized Gopher interface to their book search. Check it out here: http://sucker.com
Wow, couldn’t stop laughing for five minutes? Seriously, is this that funny?
Yes, it is that funny when you’re in PR and get yelled at every time TechCrunch (or anyone else) publishes a story without calling you for comment first (even if it’s correct…execs do not like being surprised and PR takes the heat).
Plus, good, lighthearted pranks are always better than complaints and whining.
Julius Peppers? UNC fan?
yes, it’s that funny…I’ve been crying for a couple minutes myself…
LOL, that’s EPIC!
I wonder though – on a more serious note – shouldn’t this be a source of trouble for you, if you certain sites start treating a TechCruncher “specially” thus misleading you…?
Zigmund
Yeah be worry that next apple or MS will do the same to your IP.
ooooooo nicely haha, well played facebook.
I would LOVE to have heard that phone conversation.
We actually were pretty sure it was a joke as soon as we got those Emails, so it wasn’t a big surprise when they called back and kept giggling. But yeah — the first few minutes after reading those messages were weird.
Their company culture is really weird, imho.
Nicely played Facebook. Now it’s my turn…
What turn? lol
Turn? Really? Didn’t you like the idea for grandma?
I think facebook deserves to hear from the TC readers…..via fax.
Fax: 650-543-4801
oh man, this was a fun day
That’s where you should proxies to good use to check whether it’s only for you or for others also
Makes no difference if it’s tied to their user accounts. If it was IP based, sure..
Michael,
Actually if you show their investors and the people holding money in those funds that this is how they spend their time, the final joke may be on them.
I have a long list of better things Facebook could be doing with their time:
1) Fix the ignore this person in your news stream button so that it actually works on the right hand side bar as well as the main stream.
2) Fix the ability to add a company network if you worked there in the past, the world did not start in 2005.
3) Implement even one of the dozens of ideas I shared with Facebook developers I’ve met.
You sound like a fun guy!
Yes, it is all fun and games until 201–when Facebook realizes it’s nowhere near turning profit (because they wasted money away on snooty buses), investors go ballistic, and it pops harder than anything has ever popped before.
What fun that will be! It will not only be the death of social networks as a “business model” but the death of any money at all being pumped into Internet companies for the next 50 years.
And it’s all because they wasted their time making fax jokes instead of trying to figure out how to make money. Remember the golden years of REAL tech companies? Did Apple gift itself a bus system before it actually turned profit? No, Steve Jobs wouldn’t allow such nonsense.
This is Boo.com to the 800th power (because of how much money is involved), and this crash is going to be so horrid when it happens that you’ll be able to hear screams of terror echoing through the valley for all of eternity.
Dude, seriously? I think a little bit of fun is allowed at any company, without needing to hear some whiner complain about what features or fixes they’d like to see instead.
It’s just a prank, and all involved parties obviously took it well. Well done, Facebook!
Today isn’t April 1st
You’re right. Other people should only joke with other people on socially accepted dates.
They had a prolific day yesterday, what’s the Hulu video as the service is not available here in the UK?!
Wow you must be a lot of fun to work with. Chill out, let them have some fun once in awhile at the office
hold up on that 30th cup of coffee dude- were you stuck in line at the DMV or something?
We all stress and deal with responsibilities but just a little fun every now between mates makes us all tolerable.
With all the doom and gloom its nice someone broke the static ice
Boy, you’re a breath of fresh air dude! Curious what you think of the Google Labs initiative? Ever occur to you that that doing something fun while at work might actually trigger a “eureka” type moment and might actually be a positive thing to ingrain in your company culture?
A post earlier this week suggested that FB might be gearing up for a Google Labs type initiative. Maybe…just maybe, this is completely in line with that initiative? Think outside the bun dingle-berry…maybe you’ll get a girlfriend some day.
You are like Bruce McCullough’s Kids in the Hall character where he rips his own heart out of his chest, slams it on the table, pours coffee on it, and yells “Get back to work!”
Well let’s look at it from the good side, they just got some really good publicity without spending money. 2 posts on TechCrunch on the same day and the 2nd one being that people actually feels Facebook is still cool. It is not the network that all moms and dads are hopping on. And I believe a few posts above stated that he/she will start to use facebook more. So that’s really not a bad thing. Just don’t do it too often.
Um, nobody thinks Facebook is cool. They think it’s funny that TC got punk’d. But nowhere did anyone call FB cool.
But your comment had me laughing harder and longer than Jamie from FB did at Kincaid, I’m sure of it
*fiercely rolls eyes*
Seriously?
It’s also possible to do the work before or after hours, on break, on lunch, etc. Lighten up dude, you sound like middle management.
Awesome.
If only they actually released it.
For the record I tested the Fax feature twice. Now I’m out $3.00. *Shakes fist*
Did it actually work?
Hah wasted money on a feature that doesnt work…
no, it works. see the post.
HAHAHA. That’s hilarious. It actually works.
That’s hilarious. +10 cool points to omment_date>
2009-09-11 18:44:37
I can’t believe some of these people getting all pissed off that Facebook actually took 10 minutes away from work to laugh. This is social media…building relationships is what they say it’s all about. Having fun with your peers is a doing just that and it’s great way to refresh and spark some new ideas.
Maybe after this little refresher FB will be able to go back and actually deal with all the criers that are constantly complaining about not getting the attention they deserve.
Personally, I can’t wait to see /wp:comment_date>
2009-09-11 02:47:36
“Our nose hairs started to twitch. ”
Literally? Shouldn’t you have grabbed a camera? If the nose hairs of everyone at Techcrunch twitched simultaneously that would have been the Techcrunch story of the year.
What happened when you click on the link?
the frickin thing works, that’s what.
make it a 900# and pay for that server farm- wish I would have thunk of this
It’s da killer app…fer sure
For a feature that will be used once or twice, I presume that someone at the FB office manually worked the fax machine to make this one fly.
Or they just set up the button to send the photo to an email-to-fax address, would take just a few minutes if they have a real eFax account.
classic…
lol, I love that they actually put in the time to make the feature work
Its not hard, if host_name = techcrunch, add button, if button clicked, send email to person, person print email and fax…
Oh… it’s that simple! Well golly, gee.
facepalm.
@tenaciousJk lol that was as funny as the original post
Nope – it’s legit. I know the guy that implemented it.
Facebook’s PR department are geniuses – lol!
Facebook garners more respect from me. Admit it Arrington this is hilarious and the fact that it actually works and takes your money just made it all the better.
yep.
That is awesome!
In my first week on the job at Mediaplex (prior to being bought by Valueclick) back in early 2000 the entire New York office flew out to San Francisco, we partied at the Moma for the IPO party among Circus performers, ice sculptures and Janice Joplin’s Porche. After a few days of hard work/training we all rented trucks and enjoyed a weekend in Tahoe – it was awesome – we worked hard, and played harder. I LOVE hearing about things like this because it reminds me of a time when the Internet was a blast. I feel like social media has brought the fun back to the internet. I work at Buddy Media where we love laughing hard and working harder all day. Facebook sets a great example here and I love that TechCrunch has taken the joke so well. Great story.
The problem is that too many start-ups in 1999 and 2000 did nearly the same thing, and they sank like lead weights without a successful IPO.
The Internet may have been a “blast”, but there was a lot of fiscal irresponsibility back then, and lots of investors lost money because of the “blast”.
Yeah, and now the entire American economy has collapsed and the auto industry is dead. Totally your fault. Buddy Media sucks.
ha ha! Finally, where the blame really should lay!
social media did bring back the fun to this era’s internet startups. +1
Oh man, we haven’t laughed so hard around the office since the day the Facebook Intern BBQ photos went up on the Facebook page and hilarious user comments ensued ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123654&id=20531316728 ). Glad TechCrunch enjoyed it too.
enjoy this moment.
I’m afraid something bad is brewing in the collective TechCrunch mind…
time to pay Ashton and get mark punked ????……… thgh Ashton shld learn a bit about pranks frm Fbook ….
This has made my week.
So does this mean you guys will actually call and check your sources before posting something about them? What a concept!
I hope the game will continue. We’ll have much fun if they do this frequently.
The fact that they made the feature work is hilarious! And who else would they pick but TC? Well done!
hahaha I was just going to say that!
Arrington, take it in stride. other blogs must be bummed out
This is hilarious… and almost somewhat of a copy-cat syndrome to Google’s memorable April 1st pranks… that said, this shows that they can release a feature/functionality/product to a certain network and for that, well, I would say they’re definitely on to something much bigger than this. Dear Facebook: is this prank meant to show everyone that you may just one day monetize by offering products on a per-network fee basis? If so, when can I possibly join the company and/or invest? I see many many applications for this.
This is the best article I’ve ever seen on TC.
Did Ashton kutcher come in screaming “You’ve just been punk’d!!”
i bet he tweeted that
LAWL!!
Facebook 1 – Techcrunch 0.