One of the biggest problems with relying on the Internet for communication is the fear that one day, out of the blue, everything might just stop working. Well, today is one of those days for Twitter.
As of writing the service is currently down for an undisclosed number of users. It could be a few countries, it could be the entire world. Twitter has published the following message to the public… via Tumblr:
"Some users may be experiencing issues accessing Twitter. Our engineers are currently working to resolve the issue."
Access has been intermittent during the outage, personally I've lost access several times as Twitter's servers blink furiously as they attempt to regain full operational status.
It might not seem like that much of a big deal to the everyday user, but as more and more companies adopt social media for direct connection to customers, users and audiences, all of a sudden entire commercial networks grind to a halt in the wake of a Twitter hiccup.
Twitter interaction has become almost synonymous with news reporting over the past couple of years, with some media outlets relying heavily on crowd sourced content to help provide real-time information, reaction and public opinion during breaking news stories. At times like this, relying on Twitter could prove catastrophic.
I can imagine the faces of horrified anchor men and women, staring blankly at Camera #1, jiggling their earpieces furiously and tapping iPad screens with reckless abandon as the Twitter ticker scrolls with nothing on it.
For present and future Twitter outage details, bookmark Twitter's Status official status page.
Should we really rely on Twitter as much as we do? Today's 'fail whale' return seems to suggest otherwise.
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