Tonight, a lot of us who are regular users of the micro-messaging service Twitter witnessed something pretty amazing. A 7.8 magnitude struck China and the news unfolded before our eyes on Twitter. Before it was on CNN, before MSNBC, before the BBC, even before the United States Geological Survey (which handles earthquake data) had the information, Twitter was on it. How? Its users.
While the mainstream media scrambled to put up their “breaking news” headlines, on Twitter we had pictures, maps, videos all being sent in real-time.
Twitter first responder (and sometimes blogger), Robert Scoble was on the news into the early hours of the morning, transferring news from the 21,185 people he follows to the 23,200 people following him. In turn, many of those folks would re-tweet (the term used to describe a message being re-sent out) the news to their followers. Information spread like wildfire on the service.
A quick glance at the truly awesome Twitter search site Summize (pictured below) with a query of the term “earthquake” was even more interesting and informative.
We’ve seen this before. Last year, several smaller earthquakes were reported first on Twitter. The mainstream media largely ignored this fact, but it happened nonetheless. Now, with so many people thinking about Twitter valuations, and whining about Twitter not being mainstream, the service is starting to garner attention for the wrong reasons. At the end of the day, what difference does it make if it’s mainstream or not? It’s very useful for situations like this, and it’s actually helping people. We saw that during the San Diego fires last year as well.
Today’s event are already causing some in the mainstream media to reconsider their stances on the service. Rory Cellan-Jones with the BBC, writes today:
I was beginning to think Twitter - the micro-blogging service that’s all the rage amongst the technorati - was just another fad for people who want to share too much of their rather dull lives. Until this morning.
This event along with news such as the American student who was arrested in Egypt but set free thanks to Twitter, are propelling the service into the spotlight. Whether that in turn propels it into mainstream usage, we’ll see. But again, does that really matter? Twitter will continue to be useful with or without the approval of the masses.
You can find me on Twitter here along with fellow VentureBeat writers Eric Eldon, Dean Takahashi, Anthony Ha and Chris Morrison. Oh, and we have a VentureBeat account (for our posts) as well.
Tags: co:Twitter
2:34 am
Twitter是否应该期待一次大灾难 : 北城风光 said:
[...] 援引venturebeat的消息，这次在中国西南发生的7.6级地震，Twitter又一次成为最快速最有效的传播途径。911事件中，切尼手中BlackBerry，就像指路明灯一样，照亮了黑莓的未来。这样看来，Twitter是否该期待一次这样全球瞩目的灾害时间呢？ [...]
2:41 am
Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » China earthquake said:
[...] Young Dutch Twitterer CasperOdJ reporting live from Chengdu China on todays earthquake, says VentureBeat [...]
3:25 am
Chengdu earthquake « Swibbles said:
[...] but in china, who can really tell one way or the other. seems to have created a big thing in the twitter scene tho. Posted in Fine Art of Swibble Repair [...]
5:51 am
rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s weblog » Blog Archive » Twitter - a first-repsponder medium said:
[...] first responder medium in this tragedy is already being analyzed the technosphere (good examples: MG Siegler at VentureBeat, The Onlline Journalism Blog and the ubber-blogger/twitterer Robert Scoble) and even by some [...]
7:04 am
Another earthquake, another Twitter scoop : Twitter Gossip said:
[...] Once again, Twitter breaks news of an earthquake before the mainstream media. Last week it was the DC area tremor. This time it was the 7.8 magnitude quake that hit western China. According to Venture Beat: “Before it was on CNN, before MSNBC, before the BBC, even before the USGS (the United States Geological Survey, which handles earthquake data) had the information, Twitter was on it. … While the mainstream media scrambled to put up their ‘breaking news’ headlines, on Twitter we had pictures, maps, videos all being sent in real-time.” Read the story. [...]
8:16 am
Twitter: The first draft of history? » mathewingram.com/work | said:
[...] is able to supply all of those things — and it’s also self-directed. People can post messages about whatever they wish, [...]
8:18 am
Twitter: The first draft of history? - mathewingram.com/media said:
[...] is able to supply all of those things — and it’s also self-directed. People can post messages about whatever they wish, [...]
8:38 am
Un puissant seisme au centre de la Chine fait au moins 7650 morts at Everybody say hi Brice ! - From Beijing said:
[...] (si néanmoins ca vous intéresse vous pouvez toujours aller jeter un coup d’œil ici et [...]
1:21 pm
FreshNetworks Blog » Blog Archive » And you thought twitter was just a fad said:
[...] Twitter is first on the scene for a major earthquake - but who cares about that, is it mainstream ye… [...]
4:59 pm
Earthquake hits China. Twitter reports first. « Social Media Meanderings said:
[...] Twitter is first on the scene for a major earthquake - but who cares about that, is it mainstream ye… [...]
8:38 pm
The “Twitter ain’t all that” backlash » mathewingram.com/work | said:
[...] as “first responders” such as search & rescue personnel, which is what Eric seems concerned about. That’s ridiculous. But why shouldn’t we talk about how Twitter can be used to get [...]
8:57 am
Il Fastidio.com | Prove tecniche di disastro totale said:
[...] durante gli incendi in California nel 2007, la connettività mobile e Twitter si stanno rivelando potentissimi strumenti giornalistici per costruire e ricostruire scenari in tempo [...]
5:10 pm
Obligatory post about Twitter being down yet again » VentureBeat said:
[...] need to talk. I build you up with these post about how great you are in situations like the recent earthquake in China. I write long rants defending your value and eventual viability. And then you let me down — [...]
7:07 pm
Mainstream imminent? Twitter traffic almost doubled from February to April » VentureBeat said:
[...] argued that if current trends continue, this will come eventually (though I’ve also argued it doesn’t really matter for the service to be useful). Today, some data from Compete suggests the same [...]
5:33 pm
Richard.H’s Blog » Blog Archive » The Earthquake said:
[...] the earthquake from the Internet, you can see it here. It’s a hot topics in blogsphere that twitter became the first source to ‘report’ the earthquake. Although I didn’t get it from twitter’s updates, the Internet is still my main source [...]