Jackson death crashes websites

News of Michael Jackson's death overloads Google, causes temporary error

Kathmandu, 26June(Dainikee)

Micheal Jackson's death broke Google for a time today, company officials said.

So many people around the world were typing the words "Michael Jackson" into the search engine simultaneously that Google News' computer filters assumed someone was spamming the system.

Instead of news about the King of Pop's death, many frustrated users got an error message.

"We're sorry ... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application," the error message read.

Google officials said the problem was fixed within 35 minutes.

"I can confirm that between approximately 2:40 p.m. Pacific and 3:15 p.m. Pacific today, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson," Jennie Johnson, a Google spokeswoman, said tonight.
The error illustrates the worldwide flood of internet traffic in the minutes after news broke that Jackson had been hospitalized. Jackson's name quickly became one of Google's most searched terms, surpassing searches for "Farrah Fawcett" and "Mark Sanford mistress photo."

By mid-afternoon, Jackson's name also became the most written-about term on Twitter as users of the micro-blogging site broke the news and shared thoughts about the singer's death. Users of Facebook, MySpace and other sites also reported slowdowns as users flooded the sites.

TMZ.com, the celebrity gossip website, was credited with breaking the news of Jackson's death. Many traditional media outlets, including major newspapers and television networks, cited TMZ in their early reporting on the singer's death.

Several bloggers and media critics were busy yesterday analyzing how the Jackson story spread, noting the changing way people are getting their breaking news.

"The news was broken on a celebrity website, and spread via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook before traditional media would even touch the story," British tech blogger Dave Parrack wrote on Tech.Blorge, a technology news site.

"The big news story is obviously Michael Jackson's death, but the secondary story is how the Web is succeeding in replacing traditional media when news of this type breaks," Parrack said.

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