Michael Jackson Death or the Halt of Internet.

When I came back home yesterday night, I discovered the Michael Jackson death announcement on the TV. Why on the TV? Because all my usual social media networks were out of service or so desperately slow. I was about to blame my provider, but then I realized that MJ death was probably the cause of all this Internet halt.

After long minutes, I finally reached my Facebook, Twitter and Co accounts. What I discovered was crazy!

On the 9 Twitter trends, 6 were directly related to MJ death and 2 indirectly.

Same kind of condition on Facebook : one of my friend said 35% of his friends changed their status for MJ death. On my account, that was more than 50%. The LA Times said : Twitter’s traffic update frequency doubled and Facebook tripled it! The number of messages on Twitter was up to 5, 000 per minute at peak.

MSN was slow, AIM was slow and of course all the gossip people websites like tmz.com.

The MJ death announcement created a shock on Internet. A real shock.

Does that mean that if my basic websites don’t work I feel Internet doesn’t work? Does that mean if I want to have the last news, I first trust the social media before the official mainstream news?

Yes, probably, it looks like it does.

Especially when you take a look on those stats here.

If all those stats are directed on only one topic at the same time, you can count on the fact the Web will slow down and down.

One of my colleagues, Jean-Sébastien did a post few weeks ago about the battle between Twitter and Google in French. He considers Google as the Web long term memory and some social medias as Twitter as the Web short term memory.

Because people want to have instant information as they want instant money, happiness or even love, they use some instant Medias based on instantaneity, like Twitter. In that kind of situation, Google is lost, it can’t be up to date on the news. The perfect example is this ad error from the Google Ad server :

People as they would turn to their neighbor to have the last neighborhood gossip, will turn to Twitter and Co to have the last gossip of the world. When you learn your neighbor had the cops at his place last night, the repercussion of the news is not that huge, but when you learn the King of the Pop death, then, it’s all the Web which slow down.

Actually, that’s the second time the social Medias know such a huge peak. The first time was for the US presidential election. If the Web knows how to rally the mass, as it happens with the #iranelection or with Neda, the new Web 2.0 martyr who died under the bassidjis (government milicia) bullets or with the US election, we know the Web can be moved by the King of the Pop. I’m sure tomorrow, people will have forget MJ as a pedophile, or all the not that good aspects of his life. The Web will remember.

MJ death will stay in the Web memory as the day the Internet “halt”. We’d like to remember him as the author of one of the best songs and choreographies of the today pop culture music.

Here is a selection of what we like here at Adviso :

Mehdi likes Man in the mirror, I just can’t stop loving you, Human nature, One day in your life.

JS likes Thriller and ABC. As Emily who’s crazy about ABC.

Jef loves Billie Jeans and Beat it, and also the picture of Michael and its little tiger.

I prefer Dirty Diana.

The rest of the team is so desperate to comment for the moment.

But you can have a look on Youtube, the spotlight of the day is MJ death.

Tags: death, Internet, iran election, king of pop, michael jackson, neda, pop music

Publié le 26 juin 2009 à 14:20 sous Stratégie Internet. Vous pouvez laisser une réponse, ou créer un rétrolien de votre site.