Saturday, July 5, 2008

All the news that's fit to tweet.

Another earthquake, another Twitter scoop

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.

May 12, 2008 | Filed Under Uses | Leave a Comment 

Twitter breaks news of DC-area earthquake

Reports of yesterday’s small-scale earthquake near Washington, DC, first appeared on Twitter, Reuters reports. “At about 1:37 pm, software developer Dave Winer asked the Twitterverse: ‘Explosion in Falls Church, VA?’ … A flurry of posts, or ‘tweets,’ followed, as users reported rumbles as far away as Alexandria.” Local media reported the rumbling as possible blasting at nearby Ft. Belvoir 60 minutes after Winer’s initial Tweet, and confirmed it as a 1.8 magnitude earthquake 30 minutes after that. Read the story.

Bonus: John Borthwick captured the conversation in a screenshot of Summize.

May 7, 2008 | Filed Under Uses | Leave a Comment 

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