Watching the Daily Show one night, I heard Jon Stewart mention a highly specific, and highly made-up sounding web site.

Then I went there.

It was real!

On Digg, someone posted the story and said, "Thought he was joking, but he wasn't."

Well, I had already checked the WhoIs of the site, and found it was registered the exact day the Daily Show aired! So that would lead me to believe someone watching took the idea and made it real.

If you go to the site in question, you can see that the creator wrote, "Jon Stewart said it, so I made it."

What a world we live in where fictional web sites can become real in less than 24 hours.

P.S. You can leave a comment there.

I checked the Internet Archive of YTMND hoping to find some evidence of past shenanigans, like maybe last year's version of the prank, but alas, success was not within my grasp. The latest April 1 version of the site is listed from 2005, and when I clicked the link it displays the message that there has been a "File Location Error." Rip-off!! Oh well…

I don't really think the site is dead. The cover page I saw earlier said the reason behind the abrupt closure was foreseen by many of the regulars, and wasn't worth explaining. I think that's just an excuse not to come up with a real explanation, which would surely be shared in the event of real closure.

But I guess this speculation is exactly what the creator wanted to happen on April 1st!

Ok, maybe I jumped the gun earlier posting about the face value of the ytmnd situation. Maybe it really isn't gone for good! Here's what might be the case: It's an April Fool's Day prank. I'll be some of you are saying, "duh!" Yeah well, what about this? What if the real prank is that there is no prank?

And YTMND is dead for serious?!

I think it is a distinct possibility.

I just got this a little while ago.

Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:48:48 -0700
From: "Curtis Anthony" <anthony540099@charter.net>
Subject: PROPOSAL

DEAR FRIEND,
I HAVE A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS PROPOSAL THAT WORTH ABOUT £
9,500,000.00(Nine Million Five Hundred Thousand Pounds).
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE CONTACT ME FOR MORE INFORMATION.E-MAIL:
curtis_anthonyallen@hotmail.com
100% LEGAL!
REGARDS,
CURTIS S ANTHONY

[End Email]

Before I clicked on the message, all I saw was "Curtis Anthony — PROPOSAL." "Hmm, I wonder it could be? A business proposal, perhaps? Lucrative, maybe? Oh goody, oh goody, oh goody…"

"100% LEGAL!"

That's hilarious. I wasn't even wondering, "Is this legal?" That's like the kind of thing you have to say after explaining your million dollar idea to someone who has doubts.

"I don't know. Are you sure it's legal to transfer all those millions of dollars from those banks to your Swiss account?"

"Sure. In fact, it's One Hundred Percent legal!"

"Oh, ok then…If you say so…I'll go get my credit card…"

I've just noticed this today, and maybe it's only a short-term thing. Then again, maybe not.

Theory #1: Alexa for some reason is not performing redirects, but not to worry, as this soon shall pass.

Theory #2: Alexa will never again perform redirects, as it has decided they are a bad idea.

My money's on #1, but this just goes to show you that using an Alexa redirect is indeed risky. If you were to build a redirect into your blog's "Home" link, a user wanting to check out your front page would instead be shown this: