Defining Moments in the History of Internet Fails

Roses are red, violets are blue, Manti's girl was fake, and he didn't have a clue. The verdict on Manti Te'o's story is still up in the air (much like his girlfriend), but even if he was in on the prank or not, his reputation will forever be tainted by it. While playing linebacker at the University of Notre Dame, Te'o pulled on the heartstrings of the nation after talking openly about the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. Problem was, Te'o never met her in reality, and had supposedly carried on their relationship with phone calls and tweets. Finally, the media did some digging, and discovered Kekua wasn't real. Te'o said he was duped-a male cousin of his came forward and said he was behind the hoax-but to this day, it's hard to believe Te'o wasn't behind the prank a least a little bit.

Anthony Weiner was, at one time, a respected democratic U.S. representative from New York. That was until he accidently sent out a tweet (which was meant to be a DM) of his... err, weiner. He denied the picture was his, and went straight to the "I was hacked" excuse. He soon came forward and admitted to sending suggestive photos to six women over three years, and resigned from Congress. Hey, you know, it's good to put things behind you and move forward. Then, just this year, Weiner decided to step in to politics again and run for mayor of NYC. Time heals all things, right? Well, history repeats itself as well. Weiner admitted to carrying on an online affair under the name "Carlos Danger" with a 22-year-old woman, after his 2011 resignation. As of now, he's still running for mayor.

Apple was so confident in its new Apple Maps software that it removed Google's app as the default map browser for iOS. When it was released, Apple became the subject of a ton of memes and jokes, thanks to faulty map design that left city's looking flat or submerged under water. It was a complete mess. A month later, the vice president in charge of iOS was let go from the company, because he wouldn't apologize for the Maps debacle. Apple CEO Tim Cook released an apology instead. A few months later, Google Maps returned, and accumulated thousands of downloads on its day of release.

During the London Olympics in 2012, respected journalist Guy Adams protested NBC's much criticized coverage of the games by tweeting out the email address of NBC executive Gary Zenkel, who was responsible for the Olympics. Twitter and NBC were partners for the games, so Twitter notified NBC of Adams' tweet, and encouraged NBC to file a complaint. The company then suspended Adams' account for sharing "private" information. Twitter was hit with a ton of backlash for this, as a debate arose about how private email addresses actually are. The social media giant then reinstated Adams' account.

Kat Stacks was a famous online personality who was known for her sexual conquests with celebrities. She boasted about her experiences on Twitter, and constantly put rappers and the like on blast after sleeping with them. Hey, it was making her famous and she seemed damn near proud of it (supposedly even LIl Wayne paid $1,200 to sleep with her). This all came to a halt when she was detained in an airport when it came to light that she was an undocumented immigrant. She was close to be deported back to Venezuela after the judge saw her tweets and suggestive videos, but an immigration group lobbied for her to stay in the U.S. after it came out that she was kidnapped at 14 and forced into prostitution. Stacks endured horrible things, but her's is a lesson to never publically boast about things on social media that can bite you in the ass later.

Listen, we've all been stuck at the job on a hot Friday afternoon, and the weekend couldn't seem any farther away. But instead of keeping it to ourselves and just getting through the day, many people feel compelled to broadcast these thoughts via social media. That's what one unlikely StubHub employee did when he tweeted this to what he thought was his personal account. Unfortunately, it posted to StubHub's official Twitter account. The company later apologized and deleted the offending tweet. Safe to assume, the employee soon put in applications elsewhere.

On the night of the Dark Knight Rises release, a theatre in Aurora, Colorado was the target of a mass shooting by James Holmes. As social media does, when something significant happens, it begins to trend. Celeb Boutique, an online fashion store, noticed that #Aurora had begun trending, and stupidly failed to check the reason. Instead, the store opted to use the opportunity to tweet about a Kim Kardashian inspired dress, also named Aurora. Notice a trend here? Double check before posting, especially if you have a business on the line.

Talk about jumping the gun. Back when the Jerry Sandusky scandal was in full gear, Joe Paterno's health had deteriorated significantly. While on what would eventually become his death bed, CBS Sports tweeted that the famed coach had died-a full 12 hours before he would actually pass. They didn't credit any sources for the information, but the tweet spread like wild fire. So, while his father was dying, Paterno's son went to Twitter to dispell the rumors, leading to a CBS apology shortly after. CBS was then mocked with the #CBSsportsSays hashtag all over Twitter.

When Congress proposed a new law to stop piracy, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the entire Internet rebelled. The bill would make it easier to shut down websites that shared pirated music and other content. Companies like Google, Facebook, Reddit and Wikipedia went black on January 18, 2012, to protest the bill. The Internet banded together to put pressure on lawmakers, and eventually the bill was shelved.

"Color" was hyped as a new photo-sharing app that would dominate the market in 2011. It raised $41 million before it was even released, and the company bought out the domain Color.com for $350,000 in anticipation of its launch. When it was finally released, no one could figure out what was so special about it. After a relaunch with Facebook integration, it was shut down in October 2012.

Universities everywhere seem to be adopting the online-class format. It saves money and saves space, what more could you ask for? Well, passing grades is one of them. Six months after San Jose State University partnered with Udacity to offer college courses online for a fee, the school abruptly ended the partnership after more than half their students failed their final exams.

AOL. Remember that? Well, other than sending you disks in the mail every other week, the company was swimming in money back in the day. So much money, in fact, that they bought Time Warner for $165 billion in 2001, the biggest business combo ever up until that time. Then, the dot-com bubble popped, and things went down the crapper. A year later, AOL reported a loss of $99 billion. After much embrassment, the company dropped AOL from its name and kept 'Time Warner'. AOL was rebranded as a digital media company in 2009, and is slowly making a comeback.

Zynga brought us the now classic Farmville game, which took the Internet and countless parents by storm. The company was ringing in the profits, and filed for a $1 billion IPO in 2011. So, what do you do when you have money? Buy things. Unfortunately, that's not always a good idea. Zynga bought games like Words With Friends and Draw Something, then the things fell apart. In 2011, Zynga lost $400 million. In 2013, they laid off 520 employees, closed three major offices, and brought in a new CEO from Microsoft to steer the company out of oblivion.

During the George Zimmerman murder trial, Zimmerman's former Criminal Justice professor was brought in to testify. Except Professor Scott Pleasants couldn't make it to court, so he was questioned via Skype. The problem, though, was the trial was being broadcasted on national television. Pranksters, largely spurred on by 4Chan, began calling in during the questioning, since Attorney Richard Mantei's Skype username was available for all to see. The court was then forced to drop Skype and resort to an old fashioned phone call.

Coupons have been around for quite some time. Many of us might remember our mothers cutting them out of newspapers before going shopping. But that was so tedious, right? Enter Groupon: a service that sends daily deals straight to your inbox. It became the hot thing back in 2010, and Google tried buying the company for $6 billion (!) that year. Groupon rejected the bid, and in 2012, their stocked plummeted 79 percent. What happened? People grew tired of checking their email inboxes, and businesses stopped posting deals after many of them didn't see an increase of customers.

Please people, double check when you're sending a DM. It could be an actual tweet. Marcus Jordan, the son of Michael Jordan, failed to do this when he tweeted porn-star Rachel Roxxx about hooking up, and paying her some money for their next encounter. He blamed the tweet on someone else, but it's going to be a long time before he can shake that one.

The Myspace story is one for the ages. It rose to the top of the social media hierarchy back in 2005, which led to News Corp's purchase of the company for $560 million that year. Soon Myspace's flaws, like spam, viruses and x-rated content, caught up to it, and people began flocking over to the more user-friendly Facebook platform. Justin Timberlake and Specific Media Group purchased Myspace for $35 million in 2011, and relaunched it January 2013.

Another lesson in what not to do in social media, former child-star Amanda Bynes has been on a rampage against anyone and everyone for the better part of a year. It's almost a daily occurrence to see a new tweet from her deeming someone "ugly," or promoting her own "beauty." It's a far cry from her charming and fun days as a Nickelodeon star. We can only hope she can now get the help she needs, and deserves.