OMGConan
The OMGConan hoax was invented by Justin Robert Young and Brett Rounsaville who presented it to Brian Brushwood following his live stage show at SXSW on March 13, 2010 before a live Diggnation.
They were joined on stage by Dan Rollman of URDB in an attempt to set a world record for "Most Tweeted Hoax" in which the crowd would be asked to tweet out that Conan O'Brien had just walked on stage to announce that he was joining Revision3. People were asked to include the hashtag #OMGConan.
According to URDB's research, 525 tweets containing the hashtag '#omgconan' were sent in next three hours, making it a Trending Topic on Twitter. The count of 525 was taken using Twitter's Advanced Search, tracking the hashtag #omgconan between 9 and 12 PM CST.
Thousands of other tweets related to the hoax followed, but they were not included in the final count.
Criteria to Beat Record
- re-tweets are counted
- all tweets must be within a three-hour window following original tweet
- all tweets must share identical hashtag
- hoaxes involving death or disaster not permitted