Lately, I’ve noticed a surge in traffic to Angry Chinese Driver. At first, I thought it was due to my increased participation in StumbleUpon, which, apparently, also increases traffic to your own site (assuming it’s been Stumbled). Maybe so, but my guess is that the credit really belongs somewhere else, peculiarly:

To emphasize, I put red dots beside certain search terms: sixteen out of twenty, more than eighty percent, have to do with Facebook being shut down, and half of them asking if it really is. And not only are these terms predominant, but they are searched multiple times. Up until recently, it was my article on Porsche lowering car prices in Canada that proved to be my cash traffic cow. It still is my most popular post to date, but I guarantee that within a matter of weeks, or even days, my angry rant about idiots who think “Facebook is shutting down” will become my shining contribution to the wide world of weblogs. Is this a blessing or an insult? Let’s find out.

Like I just said, there are two ways one can look at this interesting situation of this site’s popularity increasing dramatically due to my article on the supposed-and-completely-false demise of Facebook. On one hand, it’s terrible because it shows that people are still worried about Facebook being shut down, despite the lack of evidence or logic supporting these fears. What do you think is the chance of these very people joining groups “petitioning” Facebook not to shut down? I’m no expert on probability, but I’d said >99%. (Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. Just a bit.) Thus, we can conclude that those countless Facebook groups screaming about the sky falling are ever so strong in membership, if not stronger. Which is bad, really bad. Seriously, people will believe anything you tell them nowadays. And you know what? People have fully — and smartly, I applaud their creativity — taken advantage of Facebook users’ fears. Capitalism 101, or if you want to go extreme, Fascism 101. Taking the highest-ranking Nazi military commander Hermann Goering’s words (at the Nuremburg Trials, in case you’re wondering) into context, he said that “…Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked…It works the same in any country.” Facebook being shut down and fascist ideals may not have much in common (other than Facebook and Fascism sharing the same first letter), but the same technique as described by the Führer’s Supreme Air Force Commander is used today to scare people into joining inane groups, which DON’T DO ANYTHING, unlike wars, which kill tons of people and destroy a ton of places, as well as leaving one side victorious and the other defeated. And in case you disagree with me about the Facebook thing, a stupid petition by its users is not going to change a damn thing in the mind of those wishing to pull the plug on the site. But anyway, there have been reports of hoax spam emails claiming that if the recipient does not join a certain Facebook group, then Zuckerberg himself will shut down Facebook *gasp*. Total BS, I know, but that’s only what you and me think. However, I’ve now gotten ideas on how to significantly boost membership of certain groups I administrate on Facebook!

Now, on the other hand, all this interest to my site due to Facebook could be as equally a good thing as it is bad (if you think it’s bad). But before I continue, let me inform you that Angry Chinese Driver comes out as the FIRST result in Google when you search for “facebook being shut down”:

Being the first in Google Search combined with a controversial (possibly offensive) title could very well lead to potent results. Hopefully, most searchers will click to my post and be educated and finally see the light, thus converting many people from “tool” to “normal”. Millions of people are falling for the quite-untrue rumours of Facebook shutting down, and any action taken to reverse the damage is critical and essential. Doing nothing to stop the spread of lies is just as bad as condoning them.

And besides, a spike in traffic, regardless of the reason, is always something to be happy about! So my conclusion is that Angry Chinese Driver achieving popularity due to interest in the status of Facebook is a blessing, but ONLY if viewers leave this site under the correct impression that Facebook will not be shutting down anytime soon. Don’t disappoint!

Update 11/10/2007: Yep, the Porsche article has officially been edged out of first place in popularity.

Update 11/11/2007: Another surge! Is this a monthly thing now?!