Death Sparks Record 12.4 Million Tweets/hr

The death of Osama Bin Laden was one of the most tweeted events in history — and generated the highest sustained rate of tweets ever.

Twitter has released updated statistics on the usage of its platform last night. Previously, the social media company reported that more than 4,000 tweets were sent per second during the beginning and the end of Obama’s speech. It now says the real number of tweets was about 25% higher.

At 11:00 p.m. ET, just before Obama’s speech, users generated 5,106 tweets per second, the highest single volume of tweets during the night. At 11:45 p.m., just when he finished his speech, Twitter users were sending 5,008 tweets per second.

“Last night saw the highest sustained rate of Tweets ever,” Twitter announced in a tweet. “From 10:45 – 2:20am ET, there was an average of 3,000 Tweets per second.” That equates to a whopping 27,900,000 tweets in just two hours and 35 minutes.

Between 10:45 p.m. ET and 12:30 a.m. ET, the company says its users averaged 3,440 tweets per second. At its peak, Twitter delivered an average of 12,384,000 tweets per hour.

The new numbers offer a glimpse into just how momentous Osama Bin Laden’s demise was. The event surpasses the 3,283 tweets sent per second during Japan’s victory over Denmark in the World Cup, and the4,064 tweets sent per second during one of the final moments of this year’s Super Bowl.

However, the record for most tweets sent in the same second is still 6,939 — which happened during the most recent New Year in Japan..

May 2, 2011
Categories: Events, Technologies . . Author: MyMotorways . Comments: Leave a comment

White House using Flickr Accounts

The White House posted several images of President Obama and staffers planning and reviewing updates from the military raid that ended in the death of Osama bin Laden.

The White House Flickr account has been used extensively during the Obama administration, showing us candid and behind-the-scenes images from the First Family’s daily lives as well as President Obama’s diplomatic work. In fact, the administration’s overall use of social media has been impressive.

However, few pics from the account will ever get the attention garnered by this historic string of photos. These images show the palpable tension in the Situation Room the night of bin Laden’s death.

In these photos, we see Obama and other high-ranking U.S. government and security officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in one of a series of meetings. In these talks, the President and advisors planned and saw executed a successful raid on the bin Laden compound, a high-walled mansion in the northern Pakistani town of Abbottabad.

May 2, 2011
Categories: Events, News you can Use . . Author: MyMotorways . Comments: Leave a comment

23 Million Americans Watch Royal Wedding, Beating U.S. Audience For Charles And Di’s

Almost 23 million viewers in the U.S. watched the coverage of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton from 6AM to 7:15AM ET on Friday across 11 networks. That outpaces the estimated 17 million who tuned in for Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981, which was carried by the Big 3 broadcast networks in the era before the proliferation of cable. According to Nielsen, the combined viewership for yesterday’s nuptials was 22.77 million on ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBC America, CNN, E!, FOX News, MSNBC and TLC. In households, the William-Kate wedding drew 18.6 million vs. 14.2 million for Charles-Diana. As for Charles’ wedding to Camila Parker Bowles in 2005, it was watched by 3.65 million viewers.

May 2, 2011
Categories: Events, News you can Use . . Author: MyMotorways . Comments: Leave a comment