This chart, posted on the Twitter blog, shows trending of the use of the word "earthquake " following the earthquake in Southern California on Tuesday. The two headlines are from a San Diego TV station and, nine minutes after the quake, the AP. In the not-so-distance past, getting the story out within nine minutes was considered damn good. The TV station got something out four minutes after the quake. The first Twitter, seconds after the quake. Yeah, it's different, but it's still news.
By the time AP moved a story, Twitter already had thousands of first-hand reports. Twitter has often been described as micro-blogging, but the Twitter blog says that for many people, the concept of Twitter is evolving to personal news-wire. We've seen this all along, but it's growing. Here's the LA Times story on quake twittering.
From the Twitter blog:
Many news agencies get their feed from a news wire service such as the Associated Press. "Strong quake shakes Southern California" was pushed out by AP about 9 minutes after people began Twittering primary accounts from their homes, businesses, doctor's appointments, or wherever they were when the quake struck. Whether it's updates from best friends, internet pals, companies, brands, or breaking world events, the real-time aspect of sending and receiving Twitter updates continues to motivate our work.
; "Cal Malamud")
; "Gutenberg Press")
; "New York Times")
; "Jerry Douglas")
; "Dan Tyminski")
; "IMGA0409.JPG")
; "Cathy Clarke Birthday")
; "ICONN"){kind=logo}
; "Janet Coats")
; "Kodak Brownie")
Sort of on topic: To serve folks who want their news on twitter, we have built 50 state blog wires on twitter. Here's Tennessee's http://twitter.com/tennesseebnn
That sounds like a great idea.
Twitter was definitely my source on both the earthquake and Sunday's church shooting as well.
Twitter has *potential*--but that potential diminishes every time a FailWhale shows up. Can you imagine if your only or main source of info was Twitter and it went down at a critical moment? Would be just as bad as a local newscast that had no idea there even was an earthquake.
But, then again, there may be some app that comes along that's similar to twitter, but not as buggy. Maybe, in time...