As a frequent visitor to Montauk, I was fascinated by the story on Gawker last week about the ‘Montauk Monster’. After checking it out, I assumed that this would be a mostly local tale for New Yorkers that head out to the beach during the summer and the full-time residents of Long Island. Instead, the Montauk Monster has received national media attention as everyone tries to figure out what on earth this thing is (viral marketing stunt? product of animal experimentation?). The monster appears twice in our Fast Moving Search Terms for the week ending August 2, 2008 – ‘montauk monster’ came in at #5 (right behind earthquake) and ‘monster of montauk’ was #12.
For the week ending August 2, 2008, Fox News received the most traffic as a result of searches for ‘montauk monster’ followed by Gawker. Among the top 10 to receive traffic from the searches was one Long Island publication, the East Hampton Star as well as New York magazine who also posted continuing coverage along with Gawker. The story even reached British shores with coverage from the Telegraph.

Search queries for the Montauk Monster are a mixture of discussion topics around the mystery animal ranging from its authenticity, theories around what type of animal it could be, and of course, photos to see what it looks like. So far, raccoon and turtle are the top animals being named but recent stories are also bringing the pig into the mix.

Montauk Monster theories were all the rage this weekend on the beach and Twitter this weekend – what do you think is? I am still kicking around an X-Files viral marketing stunt theory while others point to Cloverfield 2. What I am really hoping is to never swim next to it!