The proliferation of the instantaneous soccer-goal Vine — the phenomenon where a seemingly endless number of Twitter users make six-second videos of goals within seconds of when they hit the back of the net — is one of the great sports internet developments of our time.
If a goal is scored during a televised game in any one of the world's top leagues, there's a 99% chance that there will be a six-second video of it online within a minute.
You don't have to wait for the highlights to come on SportsCenter. You don't have to go searching for a grainy clip on YouTube. You don't have to watch an ad.
You simply go to Twitter.com and search the name of the goal scorer along with the term "Vine," and you'll get a list of links.
Here's how it works.
On Friday afternoon, Wolfsburg's Ivica Olic scored an amazing goal against Bayern Munich, or so I heard. The game was being broadcast on GolTV in the U.S., which I don't get.
But I saw this tweet:
Goal of the season contender already from Ivica Olic. Incredible.
— Cristian Nyari (@Cnyari) August 22, 2014