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News agencies don't race Twitter on bin Laden

Wolf Blitzer and other CNN reporters were digging into whether Osama bin Laden was dead at least an hour before the news appeared on Twitter, an executive from the cable news network told CNET today.

Why should you care? If you value getting the facts straight, you should. Twitter is once again being credited for outracing traditional news sources on a major story. The first published report that bin Laden was dead reportedly came in the form of a Twitter post from Keith Urbahn, a former aide to Donald Rumsfeld, the former U.S. defense secretary. A congressman from Florida … Read more

Digital City 126: Apps a-go-go (or no-go), and the social media effect

In this episode, we talk about how cable companies' attempt to port their services to digital apps both frustrates and confounds us, the debut of the NFL 2011 iPad app, what's new in Netflix streaming, and how busy broadcast news was this week--from the royal wedding to the reported death of Bin Laden.

Bonus: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time! … Read more

Republican tweet govt.'s first word of bin Laden

The first U.S. government report that Osama bin Laden was dead didn't come from the White House. Nor was it the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or the State Department.

Instead, it appears to have originated with a freshman Tea Party congressman from Florida, Dennis Ross, who posted a note to Twitter at 10:41 p.m. ET yesterday saying: "Bin Laden is dead. GOD BLESS AMERICA!" (See list of related CNET stories.)

That public announcement came nearly an hour before President Obama's White House appearance. It came three minutes before The New York … Read more

The 404 811: Where we pick a new Mayor of Cave Street (podcast)

The Internet already has jokes about the news of Osama's death and last night's subsequent broadcast, and someone already created a Google Maps location for Osama's compound on "Cave Street" with four pages of hilarious reviews. We also have a story a programmer living in Abbottabad, Pakistan that accidentally livetweeted the death of bin Laden, as well as more random topics like Tom Tom's privacy flub, the bacteria content of your steering wheel, and a Finger-nose stylus for your touch screen devices!

The 404 Digest for Episode 811

Osama's compound pops up on Google Maps, with reviews. Programmer unknowningly liveblogs the events in Pakistan. TomTom supplies driving data to police to set speed traps. Your car steering wheel is dirtier than a public toilet seat (good thing I drive with my knees). Eyes Wide Shut-esque finger-Nose stylus for touch screens.

Congratulations to @Blood_Nut and @Steamypeas for their winning entries in our #Gunnar404 contest. Direct message us @The404 to claim your Gunnar Optiks Performance Eyewear!

Episode 811 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1460: Twitter breaks the Osama Bin Laden news! (Podcast)

Twitter shines in another moment for citizen journalism and the internet. And then there's that guy who live-tweeted the whole raid, without knowing about it. Sony officially apologizes for the PSN outage and they're giving back to the users, but is it enough? And we "Like" what the BOL Menu is serving.

Bin Laden, Twitter, and the frenzy of noise

It's difficult for the columns on a Twitter client app to resonate with emotion, but late Sunday evening, as the news unfolded that U.S. special forces had killed al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, they certainly did.

There were, at the beginning and end of President Obama's speech announcing the victory, 4,000 "tweets" per second, an estimate that the company increased to over 5,000 on Monday morning. Twitter also elaborated further and said that it experienced its highest sustained rate of tweets ever, with an average of 3,… Read more

Scammers exploit bin Laden news in search, Facebook

Online scammers have been quick to capitalize on what will undoubtedly be one of the most significant news events this year: the death of Osama bin Laden.

Within hours of the news that the al-Qaeda leader had been killed by U.S. forces on Sunday, malware was found on sites optimized to show up on Web searches related to the event and in scams on Facebook.

Also, the blog site of a Twitter user based in Pakistan who now has more than 66,000 followers and who was posting tweets as the attack on bin Laden was happening, apparently was … Read more

How bin Laden and 9/11 attacks shaped electronic privacy

Nearly 10 years ago, Osama bin Laden changed the way many of us lived.

The coordinated suicide attacks on September 11, 2001, began what would become known as the War on Terror. They led directly to the invasion of Afghanistan and the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, and indirectly to the Guantanamo Bay prison and a rise in government centralization and secrecy.

What's not as obvious is how al Qaeda's attacks, at least in technology and political circles, shifted the discussion from protecting electronic privacy to facilitating government surveillance.

Bin Laden was killed yesterday in Pakistan … Read more

Bin Laden death big on Twitter--but not biggest

News of Osama bin Laden's death was big on Twitter--but not the biggest so far in terms of tweets per second.

"Twitter traffic spiked to more than 4,000 tweets per second at the beginning and end of President Obama's speech tonight announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden," said company spokesman Matt Graves. Twitter also spread the word of bin Laden's death faster than the official announcement and supplied an inadvertent live account of the attack on bin Laden by U.S. forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Sunday. … Read more

Pakistan Twitter users capture raid on bin Laden

Even before U.S. special forces succeeded in their mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden earlier today, Twitter users were recording a rough outline of the events to come.

Sohaib Athar, who describes himself as a 30-ish independent software consultant "taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops," happened to be in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about 10 hours ago.

Athar heard the helicopters used during the raid. He shared updates live on Twitter, according to the microblogging service's timestamps. And he's likely to be a footnote in history as … Read more