Twitter – World’s Fastest News Source

Twitter isn’t the new kid on the block anymore. Globally, the amount of users is growing day by day. Today Twitter showed me once again the viral spreading speed it has to offer. News is going like crazy and doesn’t only reach a tremendous amount of people, but also reaches high influental sources like newspapers.

This post describes the case of Twitter and the Schiphol airplane crash.

Just like the Hudson crash earlier this year, within minutes after the crash the first reporters were born –regular Joe’s started spreading the news. As soon as the crash was noticed, Twitter users started reporting from the scene and broadcasted the news even before authorities gave out the official word.

First pictures were published by Twitter users and word on the streets is that Twitter even beated BBC by 15 minutes. The crash became a big topic on Twitter and 6 out of 10 trending topics on Twitter were related to the crash: it really was a global phenomenon if I may believe the search.

If you take a look at the image below, you can see the keywords crash, Schiphol (the name of the airport) and Amsterdam were even a hotter topic then the brand (and the fruit) Apple:

(click to enlarge)

Whats even more amazing is the fact that journalists from newspapers, television channels and other official authorities claim Twitter as a source for their material. Broadcasting news to the masses isn’t a thing for just official journalists anymore. Eventhough the traditional media might be more effective in quality, newssources like Twitter (and other blogs) will be heavier in quantity and in speed.

Twitter is still growing. Celebrities keep joining Twitter and word of mouth is spreading faster and faster. Twitter might not be the tool that’ll still be the tool that stands out in the future, but microblogging itself will keep growing and showing opportunities.