Steve Jobs' blockbuster death

[bcholmes]

SYDNEY: The death of Apple founder Steve Jobs provoked an online outpouring of grief likely to smash records, [says] an Australian firm as mourners took to the Internet to pay tribute to the tech guru.

[...]

Social media analysts said it was likely to break records for the most talked-about Internet event of all time, with monitoring agency SR7 estimating it had hit a massive 10,000 tweets per second and was likely to rise.

— "Steve Jobs' death to smash Internet records"

Some days, I just don't understand the world.

Comments

[onyxlynx]

social media analysts? This is a job?

Also, do we really need the grief quantified? Because someone is sure to compare it to the reaction to other deaths, and somehow I find that less than respectful.

[firecat]

I find it hard to believe that Steve's death will garner more attention than Michael Jackson's.

Not that that's going to help you understand the world any better.

[maize]

Apparently it didn't break any Twitter records, although it did chart in the top ten (numbers are "Tweets Per Second"):

1. 8,868 TPS: Beyonce/MTV Video Music Awards (Aug. 28, 2011)
2. 7,196 TPS: Japan Beats US In Women’s World Cup (July 17, 2011)
3. 7,166 TPS: Brazil eliminated from Copa America (July 17, 2011)
4. 6,939 TPS: New Year’s Eve 2011 (Dec. 31, 2010)
5. 6,049 TPS: Steve Jobs death (Oct. 5, 2011)
6. 5,531 TPS: Game 6 of NBA Finals, Dallas Mavericks vs. Miami Heat (June 17, 2011)
7. 5,530 TPS: Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami (March 11, 2011)
8. 5,500 TPS: East Coast Earthquake (Aug. 23, 2011)
9. 5,106 TPS: Osama bin Laden killed (May 1, 2011)
10. 4,064 TPS: Super Bowl 2011 (Feb. 5, 2011)
11. 3,966 TPS: Royal Wedding (April 29, 2011)

From here.