Drew Olanoff is himself an inspiration, although he doesn’t see it that way. When he was diagnosed with cancer last year, he decided to make it social. He wanted a place to talk about what he was going through, as well as where he could help raise awareness. He did so in a huge way, causing him to even gain the attention of Drew Carey. Now that his battle against the dreaded disease has ended, he decided that it is time to stop letting things sit around in his brain. Thus, Qwotebook has been officially released.

The site has a mixture of real-time and historical quotations. Users are allowed to contribute, attribute and share their favorite Qwotes of all time. The quotes can be things the users themselves have said, or things that they have seen (or read) by others – including famous people. Qwotebooks takes the funny and inspirational things you may overhear and puts them alongside some of the most famous sayings in all of history. These snippets can come from your mom, your neighbor or even your drunken best friend. The interface is easy to use, and Drew promises there are more features to come.

“If you have a dream, you do it. Period,” says Olanoff. “Time is limited, tomorrow is never promised.” As I said, this idea sat around in his brain for more than three years. He kept putting off development, thinking he had all the time in the world to make it a reality. After his bout with cancer, Drew realized that he may not have all the time in the world… that none of us do, in fact.

I can’t speak for Drew, but I know that over the course of my lifetime I have read many things that inspired me in some way. I’m sure he’s been through that, and that would likely be where his idea came from. Things that others say can not only inspire and challenge us, they can sometimes lead us to laughter when we’re down, or to cry when we need to shed a tear. What better way to bring all of these emotions and resources together than with Qwotebooks?

Qwotes Can Inspire You

I get misquoted all the time, but… I’m pretty sure I’ve never said the following. An article on SDA Asia Magazine’s Web site (Zune Fails to Crack Top 10 in Sales) contains:

Chris Pirillo, a technology pundit said, “Clearly all the data isn’t in yet, but this definitely pushes the MP3 player out of the pocket and into the realm of social networking. The question, obviously, is what is Apple going to do about this and, as a corollary, how low Apple and Creative shares are selling as we speak? Perhaps MS could create a ‘Zune Inside’ logo for those guys? Or maybe fund a halfway house for under connected MP3 players?”

Are there any other technology pundits named Chris Pirillo out there!? I’m kinda frightened about this, actually. Have you ever had a quote attributed to you without you ever actually giving that quote in the first place? They say any publicity is good publicity, but…

This is why the Mainstream Press is DOA