SoCal earthquake has everyone a-Twitter

UPDATED: On its blog, Twitter posted a chart showing how quickly information spread after the earthquake. And it gives credit to a user named Caroline (Vixy) as the first to Twitter the quake. Her post was short and to the point: "Earthquake." Here's a roundup of early tweets that broke the news.

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Twitter was first on the scene again when an estimated 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck near Los Angeles today.

Tweets started rumbling nearly as soon as the ground stopped shaking. That's a lot of Twittering on the Richter scale.

"So, now people tweet first and then run for safety?" one amused onlooker commented on Feedalizr.

To be fair, regular-people-turned-citizen-journalists used all kinds of social messaging services to get the word out about the latest natural disaster. The quake quickly became a popular topic on FriendFeed and elsewhere.

Twitter is just one of the fastest ways ...

... to disseminate information. That was the case in May when a 7.8 earthquake hit China. Now Twitter also has a new search site (formerly called Summize) which makes it easier to find information. Just go to Twitter and search for earthquake.

VentureBeat's Eric Eldon posted a message on Twitter: "hope no one was hurt in SoCal earthquake. also, not looking forward to yet more posts about twitter breaking the news *first*"

In fact, Eldon said: "i hear people in SoCal heard about the earthquake through twitter before the earthquake even started!"

Talk about ground-breaking technology.

Here's a feed of tweets containing the term "earthquake."

flash 9 required

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Los Angeles Police Department employees react to the earthquake in downtown L.A. Credit: Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Andrew, Sr. Producer, LA Times Travel / twitter.com/latimestravel]

Re-tweeting replies to our query on twitter.com/latimestravel - 'Where were you and how did it feel?'

boingo @latimestravel - and talked to Mom in Phoenix, and they didn't feel it. about 1 hour ago from web

boingo @latimestravel The Boingo office in Westwood (8th floor, Westwood and Wilshire) is fine, no damage to building, and we're all safe. about 1 hour ago

Shane Keener KeenerGuy @latimestravel In San Clemente, CA felt strong with things shaking. about 1 hour ago

[xtina]

OMG this article gave me the giggle I needed. I am not laughing at it, but simply laughing because I think it is very adorable and I do love the take on it in regard to twittering. Thanks for brighting up the experience for me!

[tweetip]

1st tweets

Timeline ~ http://tweetip.us/lka98

Chart ~ http://tweetip.us/lkutx

[No]

I felt it at my work in glendora. It felt like something hit the house and it shook then it swayed back and forth for a good 10 secs. Things fell off the fridge and broke and thats about it. At my home in Upland CA things were on the ground when i cam home.

[annonymous]

I am just horrified to see how some people react. We had a co-worker say if we don't like that, move to Miami with the hurricanes. I understand we should keep ourselves together and try not to panic, but when everyone is supporting each other and some people calling loved ones or trying to calm everyone else down, those words can be a little harsh.

[konnor winslow]

Can you tell me more about homes in Upland--how they were affected by the quake?

[Andrew, Sr. Producer LA Times Travel]

Interesting to compare + contrast the unofficial real-time Tweetscan search for 'earthquake' w/ the official Twitter flash feed above - http://tweetscan.com/index.php?s=earthquake

[Chum]

More Twitter journalism on today's events:

http://chumdinger.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/earthquake-and-technology/

[A Rothman, Los Angeles, CA]

Earthquake? What earthquake? I thought it was a truck going by.

Life goes on.

[AgentJon]

Exactly what I did, tweet first then run for cover, i believe a couple others beat me to the bunch, but only because they lived closer to epicenter...

[Svetlana Gladkova]

What I don't understand about today's coverage is people constantly comparing Twitter to mainstream media. But I think that we forget that many people simply have no idea of what Twitter is and while Twitter is good for people to share their personal experiences quickly, it does not do the job of delivering news: news are composed by news agencies and distributed to millions of people - something no social media site can do now.

[Devil's Advocate]

At first, I actually thought the earthquake was one of my rotund coworkers walking by.

[why why why]

It's good that some people decide to tweet first and then run for cover. It's called natural selection.

[Tyler]

This is why I live in the middle of nowhere, where natural disasters aren't prominent.

[tweetip]

We revised our timeline screenshot, now ordered by our internal time... http://tweetip.us/lkr1g

[TT Odi]

Breaking Tweets on Twitter beat everyone to it. And they even posted a tweet that was real-time tweeting during the shaking by a celebrity who is not one of the usual ham bunch. The writer inventor creative wild woman Vanna Bonta tweets low profile as @nearvanna and twittered should she tweet or flee under the desk. I put the URL in my name. Twitter rocks! You can see the breaking tweets I posted the url with me name mate.