Sometime yesterday evening, a Tumblr user named swiked posted about the confusing color of a dress. This question quickly returned into a debate, separating individuals into #whiteandgold or #blackandblue. This was quickly picked up by Twitter, Facebook, and others. Before long, traditional media outlets saw the hype and jumped on the traffic bandwagon, including Gawker, CNN twice, and more. By Friday, almost every article on Buzzfeed’s trending page was related to this. Business Insider even tried to piggyback views for a totally unrelated story using #thedress. Celebrities and even UC Irvine weighed in.

This just goes to show the power of the internet, where everyone is connected and information can spread like wildfire. Everyone’s chasing clicks, and when something big breaks, everyone rides the waves. A story like this is a blogger’s dream, but no one knows exactly how to replicate it. The art of going viral has been long studied, and this one certainty had compelling elements that will be studied by many.