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Google Mistook Jackson Searches For Net Attack
Slatterz writes "Web giant Google has admitted it thought the sudden spike in searches for Michael Jackson on Thursday was a massive, coordinated internet attack, leading it to post an error page on Google News. The company's director of product management, RJ Pittman, explained that search volume began to increase around 2pm PDT on Thursday and 'skyrocketed' by 3pm, finally stabilising at around 8pm. According to Pittman, last week also saw one of the largest mobile search spikes ever seen, with 5 of the top 20 searches about Jackson. Google wasn't the only site caught out by the extraordinary events. The Los Angeles Times web site also crashed soon after it broke the news of Jackson's death."
This is all so confusing!
If Google had read Google News, they would have known about MJs death. But Google didn't and thought they were being attacked...which led them to shutdown their news site...which would have told them about MJ.
What if this had happened in Soviet Russia?
a smooth criminal.
Welcome to last week Slashdot, I was really hoping for you guys to drum up a connection between Billy Mays and technology news. Maybe a scientific study on the effectiveness of oxi clean, or the possibility of a law limiting television volume.
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The media is just overreacting. He's just on Betelgeuse with Elvis.
Even Fox News had the information on Friday.
Slashdot: Slower Than Fox News.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
Ruby on rails, which is like MJ on drugs - i.e. DEAD.
I guess so. Did your parents lock you in a cave as a kid or something?
He's a 7 digit, my friend. MJ hasn't made any new truly popular music for a long time, so GP has only seen the mutilated face, the pedophilia, and the baby-dangling.
Now let's see if all the infomercials crash tonight due to the sudden death of Billy Mays.
Hey I'm a student and I resent that!
I'm regularly watching for news of nukes flying so I know when I can start looting and lock myself in waiting for the zombie attack!
Yeah, and shit will really hit the fan when someone dies who has actually contributed more to humanity than some catchy tunes, groovy moves and questionable fashion style.
The "attack" was just millions saying "I have no life, you insensitive clod!"
Google should have returned a custom error page for Michael Jackson searches - either Error 301: Moved Permanently, or Error 410: Gone would have been fine, accompanied by a "Resource Expired: Beat It!" message.
Actually, most people were probably surprised that he lasted as long as he did. With body parts falling off or changing colour, he was obviously WAY past his "best before" date.
That he died of a heart attack is just so ... mundane ... you'd expect it to be something like an angry parent or slipping off a balcony or a hyperbaric chamber malfunction or something involving Bubbles, a rope, and a closet.
Do you really want to admit that? Wouldn't it be better to claim you were searching for, I don't know, porn or something?
Do you really want to admit that? Wouldn't it be better to claim you were searching for, I don't know, porn or something?
Getting the Michael Jackson captcha while searching for porn?
I don't even want to know what those search terms entailed... but I assume the FBI picked them up, too.
A tween with a 6-digit UID? When did you register? When you were 8?
Imagine if you suddenly heard the Pope was dead. Or Kim Jong Il. Or Bill Gates. Some are good, some are bad, the only connection is that they're huge public figures known throughout the world.
Which are bad?
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Just launch a topic into the internets that is so interesting that the server[s] you wish to attack will presume that a DoS attack is in progress. Maybe via some sort of semi-popular forum....
What does everyone have against Hawaii? They have naked women and flowers. And they already got the short end of the stick in 41.
Why not nuke Kansas or Ohio? THat'll improve the IQ and educational system while only killing 2 men and a donkey.
It's as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."