Three Minnesota State University Moorhead alums are part of a team that's in the running for what's been called the Internet's highest honor, and they got there by cramming millions of people's faces into old yearbook photos.
The popular, silly-but-fun Web site YearbookYourself.com is one of the nominees in the 2010 Webby Awards' "Best Use of Social Media Category." It's eligible for both a Webby Award and a Webby People's Voice Award.
"We're really excited ... and I watch it every day to see where we're at" in the voting, says Bridget Charon, a Moorhead native, 1997 MSUM alum and one of the people who worked on the project. "It's pins and needles, but it's fun."
The site was developed by the Colle+McVoy advertising agency in Minneapolis, and the concept is pretty simple. Upload a photo of yourself and then insert your face into actual yearbook photos from years past. You could adorn yourself with a vintage 1988 mullet hairdo, give yourself a flower child vibe, sport an Afro, etc.
"I know a lot of people around here at Colle+McVoy are, like, super-stoked about" being nominated for the Webby Awards, says Moorhead native (and Bridget's husband) Andrew Charon, a 1995 MSUM grad who worked on the project. Barrett Haroldson, a 2000 MSUM alum, was also part of the site team.
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Readers can vote for YearbookYourself.com by visiting www.collemcvoy.com/webbyawards . Voting is open until April 29.
It wouldn't be the first Webby win for the site. It was first launched in 2008 as a promotional tool for a company that manages shopping malls and won a Webby People's Voice Award for that same year.
Millions of visitors have stopped by the site, and images produced on the site are all over the Facebook website.
Bridget Charon says, they "started to see, you know, Pee-Wee Herman Tweeting about how he'd yearbooked himself ... and Lance Armstrong posted his yearbook."
Late-night talk-show host Jimmy Fallon also took note of the site.
"I'd be watching TV and he'd say, 'Everyone's heard of YearbookYourself.com' ... and they'd segue into some funny skit, and so it was just kind of interesting to be sitting there in your living room and just hear it referenced so nonchalantly."
The site is not currently available, but Andrew Charon said it will be back up again. Visit www.yearbookyourself.com to sign up for pre-launch notification.
As to reasons for the site's massive popularity, Bridget points to the marketing efforts and social media as well as the "fun factor."
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She says that not only can you poke fun at yourself, "but do it, laugh, and then share it with, like, a hundred people with the click of a button."
Readers can reach Forum reporter Shane Mercer at (701) 451-5734
