VentureBeat: Twitter quakes as San Francisco shakes
dailybragger
· 9 months ago
....and don't forget Hurricane Ike. People were tweeting with their cell phones while they had no power.
califreek
· 9 months ago
is it safe to twitter if you are supposed to be protecting your head and body during an earthquake? OMG my house is falling....I must tweet this! Just sayin.....
PS I am a twitteraddict so the above comments may just actually happen to me :)
MG Siegler
· 9 months ago
Yeah, let me run you through my routine today. Apartment starts shaking -- look at computer, think about grabbing it and running into a safe area -- look at TV, think about how to save it -- look at computer again, open Twitter, tweet -- start writing story -- earthquake ends. :)
swag
· 9 months ago
This also illustrates the major problem with Twitter. Imagine if the USGS consisted of 800 giggling teenagers: 800 people who know absolutely nothing clogging the network.
MG Siegler
· 9 months ago
I thought that's exactly how the USGS is run.
Eric Rice
· 8 months ago
I'd wager that sure, we tweeted, then loaded up the earthquake maps and such by seismologists with fancy hardware that we don't have.
Everyone has a role in life.
Dan
· 9 months ago
Just curious - how is even one of the comments in your stream useful? I felt an earthquake, asked my coworkers if they felt it, too. Yes. Called wife at home - felt it but no big deal. Baby ok. Then if I wanted more info went to usgs. Not sure where Twitter helps me in that sequence other than wasting time. Not saying Twitter isn't useful because it certainly has its uses, just don't see any value here unless I guess you're alone and not sure if you just felt an earthquake. Or of course if you just want people to see you say something...
kid_z
· 9 months ago
what are the uses of twitter again?
Dan
· 9 months ago
Ego tweeting.
ehsanul
· 9 months ago
Dan, I would've never known about it if it wasn't for twitter. I just click on trends, and instantly see what a hell lot of people are talking about. Found out about it fasttt... Surely that's somewhat useful, if not that useful.
Pam
· 9 months ago
It's useful for people NOT in the area to get the information that it is happening. It's MUCH quicker than waiting for the news coverage to come out. Maybe it's not necessary, but it is nice for those who want to be in the know about that type of thing. I personally think it is pretty cool to learn about things just as they are occurring and not several hours later. It might be helpful for those who have relatives in the area. Twitter is great for a lot of reasons... networking and information sharing as well as pure entertainment. I find a lot of value in it. Yeah, there's a lot of non-useful stuff, but you can ignore or tune it out.
Malte Goesche
· 9 months ago
You had the headline ready in your drawer just waiting for this occasion, haven't you? It's a good one :)
MG Siegler
· 9 months ago
No, I work all on the fly, but that's not a bad idea!
Maggie Flores
· 9 months ago
I'LL PRAY FOR ALL OF U!!
SINCE I'M FROM THE EAST COAST , NOT FWAEQ. SORRY FOR ALL OF U.
Tim
· 9 months ago
@CAquake is an automated bot that gathers official earthquake data from USGS and reposts it to Twitter. It's generally got the official reports within 5 minutes or so of an event.
Because realtime "It's Shaking! I should be standing in a doorway" tweets are notable (and today, the tweets started rolling in from San Jose before the quake could be felt in San Francisco), but knowing the actual size and location of a quake is much more useful.
old news
· 9 months ago
We get it. People twitter earthquakes. What next? The sunrise?
jerry
· 8 months ago
need for self-affirmation. need to believe other people care. narcissism for those who were always insecure.
tweetip
· 8 months ago
Quake stats. Our Twitter client tagged, b4 USGS main site reported, 769 tweets from Twitter's datamine feed, and 2,468 tweets from twitter search.
I like that your stream of tweets ends with not one useless "earthquake!" but with two. Thanks for the fodder for my assertion that Twitter is inane.
Dave McClure
· 8 months ago
more john mayer, less earthquakes please.
Khurram
· 8 months ago
Excellent post!! Twitter is like a breath of fresh air on the Social Media scene. I have been on it for just a few weeks now and I have met several interesting people. It is a platform to network with people you would like to meet in real life. Check me out!!
All Comments
PS I am a twitteraddict so the above comments may just actually happen to me :)
Everyone has a role in life.
SINCE I'M FROM THE EAST COAST , NOT FWAEQ. SORRY FOR ALL OF U.
Because realtime "It's Shaking! I should be standing in a doorway" tweets are notable (and today, the tweets started rolling in from San Jose before the quake could be felt in San Francisco), but knowing the actual size and location of a quake is much more useful.
1st Tweets timeline http://tweetip.us/lk36w
http://twitter.com/spryka