For my Blog this week I anticipated writing about Search Engine Optimization and the benefits of optimizing your website. However, as every possible human being on this planet knows our Pop Icon, Michael Jackson passed away last Thursday, June 25, 2009.
What does that have to do with search engines you might say? I’m here to tell you everything!
Last Thursday the news of the Pop star’s death took center stage around the world and on the Internet. The speed at which this story unfolded online was very fascinating and impressive and as a marketer and online strategist very appealing. The online news agents Wikipedia proved to be the fastest – faster than Google and Twitter.
In fact Google News had so many delays due to the searches for “Michael Jackson” they posted an official statement:
"The spike in searches related to Michael Jackson was so big that Google News initially mistook it for an automated attack. As a result, for about 25 minutes yesterday, when some people searched Google News they saw a "We're sorry" page before finding the articles they were looking for." - Source
Twitter has created a new real-time web. Google had a time lapse in indexing – more than 3 hours! With such a delay people were going directly to specific news websites to get the information on Michael Jackson’s status instead of doing the typical Google search, as the delay was so behind.
The following is how the news spread on the Internet – starts at 19:21 and ends 23:47
- x17online.com breaks the news about the pop star – a really small entertainment news agent and post photos and a brief story - 20 minutes before the larger entertainment sites like TMZ.com .
- TMZ.com posts "Michael Jackson -- Cardiac Arrest" - the story is distributed to hundreds of thousands of people via RSS.
- Wikipedia reports Jackson's Cardiac Arrest - A member of Wikipedia adds the news of the Cardiac Arrest to Jackson's Wikipedia article. Before any other news or social media source.
- Ten minutes after the first click from TMZs Twitter to TMZ.com where the story of his death is posted. Reports of his death start to show up on RSS feeds and eventually Twitter.
- 10 minutes later CNNbrk tweets that Jackson goes to hospital – to 2 million followers
Wikipedia freezes Michael Jackson page - After an explosion of edits to Jackson's Wikipedia article, editors take the step of locking it down in protective status. - Two and a half hours after it all started Wikipedia editors mention Jackson's death on the article discussion page.
- bit.ly link reaches high of 2,500 clicks a minute
- Three hours later - "RIP Michael Jackson" tops Trends on Twitter Story takes the next step and ap
pears on Twitter's Trends. Tens of millions of Twitter users now can see the story.There are now over 2000 mentions a minute of Michael Jackson on Twitter and Twitter overloads and falters.
Google News Results of Jackson's death start showing up on the results page for the query "Michael Jackson" Finally after a whole three hours.
The Internet felt the loss of Michael Jackson just as much as the fans did. I would liek to hear your comments. If you want regular updates - follow us on twitter.
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