Take our Quiz on ESPN's Olympic Central

We are now live on ESPN too. Yipeeeeeeeee!

Take our Olympics quiz and challenge your friends.

Editorial Marathon: This team knows everything about the Games

By: (Bo) and [Rob] and <Sara>

The only way I MIGHT lose a bar trivia night that has an Olympics category is if I'm playing against Rob Ready [and he is still standing upright without slurring his speech]. Why? Because this editorial team knows everything, EVERYTHING [seriously, like everything] there is to know about the Olympics--Olympic history, why Francisco Lazaro didn't finish the 1912 Games (he died), how Olympic basketball isn't the same as NBA basketball (something only Tony would know), and which googly-eyed mascot belongs where <"I can't help it. I like cute.">. We've got it down. But it's been a marathon of a process (ask Tom).

I knew nothing about sports or the athletes for Beijing 2008 when we were told, "Make Olympic questions for an Olympic quiz." It was a painstaking, fact-checking, guessing, brain-racking process, all of which lead up to one question: What is interesting about the Olympics?

Then it turned into a "What is true about the Olympics?" What do you mean the 1980 Moscow Games weren't the first to be boycotted? It says so, right here, on the Internets! What do you mean this American isn't competing for America? Americans ALWAYS compete for America ... that's why we're Americans! Yaaaarrrrr!

Breathe. Cry a little. Drink some beer [the latter an ancient Canadian tradition].

And, we're back.

On top of our regular Deadline duties, we've been stockpiling trivia about the Olympics in an attempt to separate out the fanboys jumping on the Olympic '08 bandwagon from the real Olympic hardliner fans [Note: Bo is a total fanboy] (Thanks, Rob). We admit, it's a tough quiz, though from the number of 100% we've seen, you wouldn't know it (people are much smarter than ... well ... me).

Some notes on the Olympics quiz: We kept the politics out of this one. We left them for you in Deadline, but the Oly quiz is sports-flavored, athlete-focused. We also had to write most of the extended answers this time around, so we had to be a little more creative [Response upon being asked to actually write something: "I am illiterate."].

We really couldn't have done it without Tom. He made more Oly questions than all of your other editors (those lazy gits). Also, we can't forget Maureen, our underpaid ("volunteer," we call it) intern this summer who actually went to the library and checked out Olympics books for us (cute).

And the content is amazing and all (thank you, thank you), but our quiz questions wouldn't be half as much fun without the cheats, bling and what-have-you, courtesy of our boys in Dev.
 They've been working strange hours, running back and forth working on stuff while we look on haplessly and feel a little useless (that could just be me). This week has reduced them from our chillax dev gurus to incarcerated, pizza-eating, computer vampires. Mad props and much love, guys. They rock hard.

Anyways, take the quiz. And enjoy the Games.

Live now:

In the US  http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/trivia

In Australia http://media.foxsports.com.au/multimedia/2008/07/olympics-quiz/

In India  http://sify.com/sports/olympics/olympicsQuiz.php

In South Africa http://sport.iafrica.com/beijing2008/quizz/

P.S. Our motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius, Bar Trivius Drinksus

Gotta Love the Aussies: "Challenge Your Mates"

Newzwag's interactive version of the Olympics quiz is live in Australia and boy, the Aussies are having fun playing. They're spending an average of 17min playing according to our stats. Go ahead, "Pit your wits and find out just how good your Olympic knowledge really is, or challenge a friend and go head-to-head to determine who knows the most when it come to the Games."

In Australia, the games live here Interactive Olympics Quiz.

Get ready to flex your Olympic muscle

This summer, all eyes turn to China. Even if we've never watched a game or looked at sports pages, the beauty and the drama of the Olympic Games make everyone in the world a sports fan. Who can forget Nadia Comaneci's perfect score during the 1976 Montreal Olympics? Even though I hadn't even been born when she accomplished such feat, she was my idol! Olympic news spans the globe, from Romania to Montreal, to Colombia (Col-O-mbia with an 'o') where I grew up; Olympic legends live in our hearts forever.

AFP clients jumped at the opportunity to go beyond the news to get into social gaming with our Olympics version of Deadline which goes live next week on a couple of high-profile web properties (all I can say for now).

At this stage, the quiz includes biographical and historical information about past and present athletes and Games. It tests player's knowledge about the Olympic sports and news -- both on and of the field -- and events from the run-up to the Beijing games. With the start of the games, the quiz will incorporate news from each day's events, drawing players back to test their skills on a daily basis.

We are leveraging people's competitive spirit and their desire to keep up-to-date with the whirlwind of news events. We know our players enjoy the thrill of competing, the opportunity to learn while they play and yes, to brag to their friends too. Go ahead, train your brain.

Olympics: Give and Get Satisfaction

We'll be kicking off our client support efforts on GetSatisfaction.com to respond to clients taking our Olympics quiz.

GetSatisfaction.com is a great space that allows us to handle customer support while giving clients the opportunity to publicly discuss their experiences, rants and raves. The site thrives on customers helping each other out, so we encourage everyone to participate and help.

To give and get satisfaction just go to our Olympics products home.

Thank God it's Friday

After a grueling week we got our Olympic product presentations and demo site done and we're looking forward to the commercial launch next week. BTW: It's like 90 degrees in SF today, beer anyone?

AFP PHOTO/ EYEPRESS

Quiz goes B2B for the 2008 Summer Olympics

After months of experimenting on social networks we'll soon be offering AFP clients fun and informative social applications. We are taking Deadline to AFP's media clients as an add-on to AFP's Olympic products, which will enable clients to engage audiences in more meaningful ways. (btw: the app won't be called Deadline anymore)

It's an exciting time for Newzwag. We are remixing tradition with modern practices by tapping into AFP's services and bringing premium Olympic coverage to new audiences through the quiz. We're confident the infrastructure of the game will help clients build community and encourage people to participate and interact.

Stay tuned for more info on Newzwag's experiments and growth.

It's official, Fuel News has been approved

After a couple of days wait, 5 to be exact, our Fuel News app has been approved and listed on Facebook’s Application Directory.

Now you can get smart, go global, and track world news without leaving Facebook.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

Deadline: Heads up for 2008

It was three months ago, in cramped and carpeted quarters at the San Francisco's Embarcadero Center, that we launched our first Facebook application: Deadline, our not-so-trivial news quiz with long questions and even longer answers. Some of you might remember.

Since then, we've upgraded; we rolled out some cool features (more to come) and expanded our players from the 11 people who brought you deadline to 35,000 players from around the world. And the swank new office is a definite improvement.

Thanks for the support (Merci, Danke, Gracias...). We hope you keep playing as we continue to roll out new features and other news-based applications.

In 2007

• We added cheats.
• We integrated news articles behind every question. These are accessible from both the answer and review pages. Oh yes, you can also bookmark them and share them by posting them to your profile and/or by sending them to friends.
• Due to your ravenous appetite for questions and the growing ranks who have soared to astronomical point totals, we had a level shakeup as well.
• Bryan Whalen from AppRate.com wrote an (awesome) review about Deadline right before Christmas, check it out at: http://www.apprate.com/deadline-346/
• Our first ever Year in Review challenge was a success. Nearly 1500 people gave it a try, including 10 prizewinners who came from different corners of the world - US, India, China, Turkey, Australia, Algeria, Canada. Congratulations to all.

For 2008

You can expect to see some of these features soon, as well as some other surprises:

• bragging feature
• challenges
• submit your own questions
• multimedia
• ... and much more.

Not to be missed

Check out Fuel News. Fuel News is our latest App, a place where you can deepen your knowledge and discover the stories you might have missed.

We are attentive to your feedback with regards to features so keep it coming.

Last but not least, we'd like to remind you can Rate the App and Share it with friends.

Thanks again, enjoy the news!

- The Deadline Team

Fuel News App beta on Facebook

We just released the first version of our most comprehensive news application to date.

Fuel News allows you to engage with the news and each other. It's a place where you can deepen your knowledge, and discover the stories you might have missed.

From browsing to voting, to commenting, bookmarking and sharing, Fuel News is social news right on Facebook.

Check it out at: apps.facebook.com/fuelnews