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Yes, Twitter is Down – What Happens To Apps Built on Twitter?
“Twitter Come Back!“
Yes folks, Twitter is down. Take this opportunity to clean out your email, clean your hard drive, take a walk or check out one of our great sponsors. From what we can tell, Twitter has been down for approximately thirty minutes as of the time of this post. We’ve received a variety of emails also noting the same. Our man in Switzerland says he is also unable to access the site.
Earlier this year we highlighted 10 excellent ideas on how to use the time when Twitter is down.
The question no one seems to be addressing is what happens to the apps that are built on top of Twitter? This morning we profiled Summize and their conversational search that uses Twitter. So for now, people can search but that’s about it – the “real-time” index won’t be updated until the service returns. How does this affect their income potential? What about all of the hundreds of other Twitter apps?
Is Twitter down where you are? If so, how are you using the time?
Update 7:34 PM Eastern: Twitter was partially up for a moment.
Update: 8:19PM Eastern: Twitter remains out of service – no update has been provided on the Twitter blog.
Update 8:48PM Eastern: From Chris Anthony: We have an update from Alex Payne via the Twitter Development group on Google:
“I can confirm that we have been down for some time due to a massive unexpected cache invalidation. We’re working to bring the site back up, although some features will be limited until caches have repopulated.”
Update: 9:15pm Eastern: Twitter is back with limited functionality
well I was in bed but it wouldn’t of affected http://crowdstatus.com much because I store the last 5 tweets for each user. The only thing that would of happened is no updates and people couldn’t of added new people to thier crowds(note to self must add twitter might be down when I get a 404).
Thanks Chris – I’ve updated the post!
Chris, thanks for posting the Alex Payne statement.
From Alex Payne, via the Twitter Development group on Google:
“I can confirm that we have been down for some time due to a massive unexpected cache invalidation. We’re working to bring the site back up, although some features will be limited until caches have repopulated.”
The slightly weird thing is that the backend Jabber infrastructure is up, I just twittered and heard it get SMS’d to my other half’s phone.
This looks like a web issue; the Twitter API is based around HTTP calls to the web server. There’s probably an Apache or RoR problem that’s affecting the web interface and the API, but not touching Jabber and SMS.
http://datainsightsideas.com/post/34830546
:)
without twitter, how will we know what sarah lacy is doing to promote her fab book?
i do not like it when twitter is down
MojiPage’s Twitter widget says “Problem contactin remote host.”
m.slandr.com just doesn’t load (or at least it’s taking a long time to do so).
yes i’ve seen it – is there a ismahalodown.com ?
have you seen this?
http://istwitterdown.com/
:)
Allen – please make some videos or do something to occupy our time!
So you’re saying that just because twitter is free we shouldn’t complain about downtime? That’s a bit of a ridiculous statement. Zoho is free, Aim is free, gtalk is free, come to think of it there are tons of free applications out there that we are using. And you are saying that during consistent downtime we are supposed to be thankful or just stop using the service? That’s a bit of a premature statement.
The reason we use a lot of these free services is because we depend on them, enjoy using them, etc. Simply not using the service is not a very good approach in my opinion. You can see that a lot of people get frustrated with twitter when it goes into its “downtime.” Quite frankly it is the consistent, frequent, and random downtimes that people are upset about. Every service goes through some sort of down time, including Google. It’s the approach you take to your “downtime” that matters. I say everyone should complain and call out twitter, that’s how changes get made.
“…everyone should complain and call out twitter, that’s how changes get made.”
Sorry, Jacob, that’s just wrong.
Changes get made through constructive feedback, preferably left after the crisis has peaked, when everybody is calm and not likely to overreact. A complaining customer is just as likely to get “the bedbug letter” as actual change – perhaps more likely, especially if they’re complaining about a crisis in progress.
The problem with complaining and calling Twitter out now is that they’re already doing their best to restore functionality. Complaining is just frustrating for them; they’re already aware that there’s a problem and, to be blunt, they’re probably more upset about it than you are. By taking a step back, you allow them space to breathe and to fix the problem, and you allow yourself the chance to sound like a rational, adult human being.
Constructive feedback can be as simple as “I was frustrated about [x], because [y]“: “I was frustrated when Twitter was down this afternoon, because I love the service and have come to rely on it, and I was at a loss without it. I hope that it doesn’t happen again.” But it should be no more heated or emotionally charged than that; if it is, you run the risk of – as above – getting “the bedbug letter”. (I encourage you to look that up if you’re not familiar with it.) If you have actual expert advice to offer, do so cautiously, but remember that the people you’re talking to undoubtedly actually know what they’re dealing with better and more closely than you do, and are probably already considering the options you’re suggesting. Still, it doesn’t hurt to suggest – as long as, as above, you’re calm and cool about it.