Google Mistook Jackson Searches For Net Attack 256
Slatterz writes "Web giant Google has admitted it thought the sudden spike in searches for Michael Jackson on Thursday was a massive, coordinated internet attack, leading it to post an error page on Google News. The company's director of product management, RJ Pittman, explained that search volume began to increase around 2pm PDT on Thursday and 'skyrocketed' by 3pm, finally stabilising at around 8pm. According to Pittman, last week also saw one of the largest mobile search spikes ever seen, with 5 of the top 20 searches about Jackson. Google wasn't the only site caught out by the extraordinary events. The Los Angeles Times web site also crashed soon after it broke the news of Jackson's death."
I wonder (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
There's not a lot of news that effects everyone in the world all at once. Probably as soon as North Korea launches a nuke against someone the same thing will happen.
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[quote]Probably as soon as North Korea launches a nuke against someone the same thing will happen.[/quote]
The frightening thing is, I'm not so sure it will.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but as much as I love hating humanity, I am SURE that a nuke would bring the internet to it's knees (ignoring any possible actual interruption from the nuke itself). Some one pointed out the effect that 9/11 had on the news web pages, I am fairly sure that even more people will actually care (aka, be scared silly) if a nuke finally does fly. I don't care if it is 2 countries that 'we' don't care about, we have the 'fact' drilled into our heads that the only think to come of nukes is MAD.
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Re:I wonder (Score:5, Funny)
What does everyone have against Hawaii? They have naked women and flowers. And they already got the short end of the stick in 41.
Why not nuke Kansas or Ohio? THat'll improve the IQ and educational system while only killing 2 men and a donkey.
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Sorry, but as much as I love hating humanity, I am SURE that a nuke would bring the internet to it's knees (ignoring any possible actual interruption from the nuke itself).
Now that is a glorious bit of irony. ARPANet was inspired to maintain communication in the event of nuclear war, and the end result will be that there are so many people with internet access during a nuclear strike that the traffic volume will disable itself. :-) [Uhh, here's hoping it stays just an academic issue. :-( ]
There's a philosophy paper somewhere in that.. thanks!
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"A Brief History of the Internet [isoc.org]", Internet Society
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So you must be what , in your 30s ?
As a 'tween' , i don't see how anyone can mistake the principle of mutually assured destruction.
Basically , anyone who fires a nuke first, will get nuked as well , thus leaving no survivors and no winners.
However , these days , the MAD principle can be abused by terrorists : they just have to ensure that one nuke gets lauched at one side ,and the other countries will respond , destroying everything.
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Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
You're probably right. On Sept. 11, 2001, the news sites all ground to a halt as everyone tried to find out what was going on.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Funny)
It's as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
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Yep. Music doesn't impact anybody. Who needs culture, anyway?
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Most American school systems who face budget cuts, apparently.
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t really didn't actually "impact" hardly anybody.
I'm sure the world is full of people, such as myself, who regret the fact that they'll never get to see him perform live.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Funny)
The "attack" was just millions saying "I have no life, you insensitive clod!"
Google should have returned a custom error page for Michael Jackson searches - either Error 301: Moved Permanently, or Error 410: Gone would have been fine, accompanied by a "Resource Expired: Beat It!" message.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
So maybe instead of a bad reflection on humanity, this is just a bad reflection on the current stability of the intertubes, Google in particular.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
So maybe instead of a bad reflection on humanity, this is just a bad reflection on the current stability of the intertubes, Google in particular.
It actually seems to be a good reflection of the current stability of the internet. After all, it worked fine for you and most other people. Sites have gotten much better at handling heavy traffic so it is harder to bring them down. In Google's case, it wasn't so much the amount of traffic as it was misinterpreting what that traffic meant. They thought it was an attack and started playing defence instead of serving it. Once they realized the problem, they could easily handle the volume.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Informative)
You don't live in Canada you live out west.... Canada is located in southern Ontario.
Didn't you know? Since the economic downturn Canada has had to move to Saskatchewan to find a job. Some of it even overflowed into Alberta. The move started in the 1800's with the building of the CPR.
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It actually seems to be a good reflection of the current stability of the internet
That reminds me the last time i tried to use my cellphone to call my relatives after an earthquake, impossible, it was only 2 years ago or so. We will see (hopefully not) when something really bad happens how the net behaves. Probably like in 9/11, we will only get text news pages. What i am worried is twitter, probably won't make it and if they did, who knows the kind of misinformation it will deliver to people... not that actual news are 100% accurate either... *sigh*
Worked fine (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Informative)
When I was a freshman in college, an EE professor put a chart up on the projector. It was a fairly consistent chart with one giant spike right in the middle. He explained this was demand on the US power grid over a period of several months, and asked the class what they thought caused the giant spike...most big world events of the 90s were thrown out by the students....and they were all wrong.
The spike that put all the country's power plants at full capacity was the announcement of the OJ Simpson verdict.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
If any other news "event" has ever caused there to be such a massive amount of searching - it worries me that it is a celebrity causing this and that people aren't this into any "real" news that actually impacts them.
It isn't necessarily the "impact" factor but the fact that no one expected it. It was a sudden death. He was 50 years old. This is similar to the death of Heath Ledger. When someone young dies people are going to be shocked and wonder what happened. This is also one of the reasons for an autopsy. Old people who die usually don't have an autopsy done on their bodies unless something is out of whack. Someone dying young is one of those "out of whack" things. It is a curiousity thing just like staring at a car wreck and death is something anyone can relate to.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, most people were probably surprised that he lasted as long as he did. With body parts falling off or changing colour, he was obviously WAY past his "best before" date.
That he died of a heart attack is just so ... mundane ... you'd expect it to be something like an angry parent or slipping off a balcony or a hyperbaric chamber malfunction or something involving Bubbles, a rope, and a closet.
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That he died of a heart attack is just so ... mundane
Cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. Cardiac arrest is when the heart just stops, a heart attack is when the heart stops receiving blood/oxygen (as ironic as that sounds).
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Re:I wonder (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:I wonder (Score:4, Interesting)
The thing about MJ wasn't really that he died but rather the fact that he just randomly died. He was arguably one of the most popular musicians with the general crowd to die since Elvis. Many people got texts, twitter updates, Facebook updates and wondered what exactly was going on. While no one thought MJ was in amazing health, he didn't have cancer or a long illness so many assumed it was a prank so they Googled it to get the info from a reliable source.
That's the right answer.
The story is exactly relevant enough and questionable enough that it needs verification. So -everyone- verifies it.
The question should be - what about Michael Jackson's life leads people to believe that news of his death is so likely to be a prank that it must be immediately verified?
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Imagine if you suddenly heard the Pope was dead. Or Kim Jong Il. Or Bill Gates. Some are good, some are bad, the only connection is that they're huge public figures known throughout the world.
Which are bad?
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There's more important things than music? That's news to me.
Re:I wonder (Score:5, Informative)
You see, those other things I listed are not surprise, immediate events. Those things are not likely to have caused millions upon millions of people with internet access to suddenly, at the same time, wonder, "is that true?" I'll let you finish thinking about only this post while I go check out some pr0n, read my email, and browse some other news headlines.
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I think the reason a lot of people searched Google News is because they heard about it and weren't sure if it was true or not. If someone wanted to spread an untrue rumour about something, this is the sort of subject they would choose.
I searched Google News for that reason, and when I saw it was reported on news sources that are usually reliable for that type of news, like BBC and Sky News, I then believed it was true.
Also, like a million or so other people, I have tickets for his show in London next month
Old news (Score:2, Interesting)
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Non-news for most of the world. Every major broadcaster had this a few days ago. What is the point of having it here?
Re:Old news (Score:5, Funny)
Even Fox News had the information on Friday.
Slashdot: Slower Than Fox News.
They didn't read Google News? (Score:5, Funny)
If Google had read Google News, they would have known about MJs death. But Google didn't and thought they were being attacked...which led them to shutdown their news site...which would have told them about MJ.
What if this had happened in Soviet Russia?
Re:They didn't read Google News? (Score:5, Funny)
Michael Jackson would've attacked YOU with "google news" queries!
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Michael Jackson would've attacked YOU with "google news" queries!
I'm decades past MJ being interested, but still disturbed by the thought of him googling me.
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Well, being 'decades past'*, I would think you are safe...he was more into little boys I hear.
But on a side note:
After seeing picures of him in recent years, I have often wondered if we would ever know if he came back as a zombie, or was still his same self. He already looked like a zombie some years back!
*I'm also decades past. I remember seeing him on TV when he was in single digit age as part of 'the Jackson Five', back when...never have cared for his music at all.
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What if this had happened in Soviet Russia?
it'd be google.ru instead of google.com
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What if this had happened in Soviet Russia?
it'd be google.ru instead of google.com
If Soviet Russia still existed, there would be no .ru TLD - it would be google.su
Re:They didn't read Google News? (Score:5, Funny)
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I'm pretty sure we have that here too.
It was actually the work of... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It was actually the work of... (Score:5, Funny)
Clearly the boogie is to blame.
Nah it was the work of... (Score:2)
Some websites went down... not Google (Score:5, Insightful)
say, say, say what you want (Score:2)
but don't blame me for lost connections
take, take, take what you need
but don't tweet about me in the same second
Re:Some websites went down... not Google (Score:5, Informative)
Good for google. (Score:5, Insightful)
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As much as everyone might think this is a big boo-boo by google, I say its a great job done by automated software.
It is this kind of thing that always makes me suspicious of automated defences. These things usually generate a model of what is normal and interpret things that fall outside of normal as an attack. The problem is that sometimes the abnormal pattern that is seen is actually normal. It is completely predictable that a well known, controversial pop icon would generate a huge increase in traffic when he unexpectedly dies (he was planning a comeback concert tour). I'm not sure how an automated defence can h
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So, you're a fucking retard, huh?
Google News had no capacity or throughput issues. It thought that it was a distributed denial of service attack and forced users searching for Michael Jackson to enter a captcha. I know, I saw it.
Re:Good for google. (Score:5, Funny)
Do you really want to admit that? Wouldn't it be better to claim you were searching for, I don't know, porn or something?
Re:Good for google. (Score:5, Funny)
Do you really want to admit that? Wouldn't it be better to claim you were searching for, I don't know, porn or something?
Getting the Michael Jackson captcha while searching for porn?
I don't even want to know what those search terms entailed... but I assume the FBI picked them up, too.
Welcome to Last Week (Score:5, Funny)
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Obviously, this is a huge conspiracy. I mean, Billy May, Farrah Fawcet, and Michael Jackson? It can't possibly be a coincidence. And this comes at a time when Ron Paul is trying to get Congress to audit the Federal Reserve. Clearly, these deaths are intended to distract the media and voters before Ron Paul gets too close to the truth.
Hmmm. If someone made a movie with this plot, I'd pay to go see it. Hopefully, I don't get knocked off for discovering the conspiracy because that is usually what happens
Re:Welcome to Last Week (Score:5, Funny)
from Consumerist:
You have to wonder if before going to sleep last night, pitchman Billy Mays thought of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon, and said to himself one last time, "but wait, there's more!"
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Shrug (Score:5, Insightful)
He's not dead! (Score:4, Funny)
Twitter is fragile (Score:5, Insightful)
That's it? That's all it takes to bring Twitter to its knees? A measily 18 tweets per second? Do they manually transcribe the messages after having read that an air gap was the most effective security you could get? Or is the article plain wrong.
Seriously confused here.
Re:Twitter is fragile (Score:5, Insightful)
Thats what happens when your site is based on Ruby...
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Ruby on rails, which is like MJ on drugs - i.e. DEAD.
Re:Twitter is fragile (Score:4, Interesting)
Sadly, I saw Ruby and Ruby On Rails refused for multiple projects because of catastrophically poor benchmark results. I mean that Java, PHP, and Perl were all totally acceptable, and Ruby disqualified itself in performance. (thousands of times difference).
Glad I never wasted time learning it.
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That's it? That's all it takes to bring Twitter to its knees? A measily 18 tweets per second? Do they manually transcribe the messages after having read that an air gap was the most effective security you could get? Or is the article plain wrong.
What do you think :)? For the record, when the MJ news was at its peak, the volume was more like 1000+ tweets per second on Michael Jackson alone, so I have no idea how the article got those numbers.
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66,000 tweets per minute would give you 1100 tweets per second. So likely someone misheard or misspoke 66,000 tweets per minute as 66,000 tweets per hour.
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Database indexing is slow (Score:2)
Did you know that (Score:2)
if you type Jackson into Google, you can break The Internet.
They were so close to the truth! [youtube.com]
Peer-to-peer protcols as a solution to demand (Score:4, Interesting)
And I'm sure the audience here is no stranger to the Slashdot/Schumaker-Levey effect?
There needs to be a blend between the ability of peer to peer protocols (bittorrent?) to service and distribute massive amounts of content and HTTP. Such technology would permit the audience (or data sinks) to service itself in times of major crisis and permit the important information to reach people.
As far as "breaking the news"... (Score:4, Informative)
It was actually TMZ.com that "broke" the news, many minutes before anyone else. The other news sites waited until someone they considered "legitimate" reported it before accepting it as fact. I guess they were trying to avoid a "Dewey defeats Truman" moment...
KABOOM! (Score:2, Funny)
I was away from all media this weekend (Score:2)
I cannot even begin to describe how utterly nice it felt to know nothing more than he's dead and I don't have to be inundated with inane television coverage.
I do think his funeral is going to be a bigger circus than the pope and Reagan combined.
It was a Triller Zombie Attack on the net! (Score:2)
Ok, couldn't resist.
Just eat it. Your table manners are a crying shame... just eat it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyfcOriVKBM [youtube.com]
TMZ Broke the news (Score:5, Insightful)
TMZ broke the news of his death, not the LA Times. Let's give credit where credit is due.
Why shouldn't MJ generate such a big response? (Score:5, Insightful)
I keep reading comments that it is "a sad state of affairs" that news of a celebrity's death has garnered much more response from the world then, say, news of a recent scientific breakthrough.
The fact of the matter is, Michael Jackson is one of the most recognized persons in the world, and for quite a long time too. So what if he has contributed nothing/little to science? You think without music, art, and other culture we would be the same human beings? Art and music define us and advance us as much as science - why else would cavemen draw?
So what if so-and-so was responsible for inventing solar-power, or discovered water on mars. That isn't affecting the majority of the poor population in Bangladesh. Yet, they ALL listen to Michael Jackson.
Get over it.
Patience required... (Score:2)
News media web sites may have crashed under the strain, but all I had to do was wait a few hours and read the news on paper. Paper doesn't crash.
Can't wait a few hours? Okay, switch the TV on and find a 24-hour news channel (even here in the channel-starved UK we get a choice of two). TV doesn't get slashdotted.
Old media WINS in these situations. Sure you can't write comments for all to see at the end of a news bulletin, but then you don't have to read the inane rantings of the masses after every news bulle
Fake 'DoS Attack' Attack! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Am I the only one (Score:5, Insightful)
Michael Jackson was a fairly formative musical influence to a lot of modern music. The importance of "Thriller" can't really be overestimated.
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I think current events prove it can be. Or at least overhyped. He was a talented guy, but he was a musician. He's not Einstein. His contribution to society is really not that significant.
In 10 years he'll fade, just as Lennon and Elvis have too.
I like music as much as anyone, but it's important to put it into perspective. It's important always to remember it a commercial product and owned by one of the most unethical industries on Earth. A
Re:Am I the only one (Score:4, Insightful)
He was a talented guy, but he was a musician. He's not Einstein.
See, this I find disturbing.
I understand this is slashdot where the sciences are valued above the arts, but that doesn't mean that the arts aren't a significant part of societal development as well.
In 10 years he'll fade, just as Lennon and Elvis have too.
And so too will Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovitch, Joplin, Sousa, and so on.
Oh wait.
Yes, I am comparing them with those composers. The music is different and less complex. Doesn't mean it's not good stuff.
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Michael Jackson was a fairly formative musical influence to a lot of modern music.
Maybe that's why I pretty much stopped listening to American music in the early 1990s.
I thought he was a crazy, drugged-out pederast. My wife was in tears.
I'm not particularly dismayed by the reaction of some here - to each his own. I *am* dismayed that Farrah Fawcett, who died on the same day, never got any mention here.
I find it fascinating that with all his debt issues, he was surrounded by Nation of Islam financial advisors, the same as Kareem (who ended his Hall Of Fame basketball career broke).
Now,
Regine Velasquez the next Michael Jackson? (Score:3, Interesting)
Have you ever even heard his music?
Yes, and your point is? Have you ever heard the music of TAKAHASHI Mariko, or Regine Velasquez? They have voices that sound like angels, to my ears. Sadly, Regine is headed down the same road Michael Jackson apparently took.
I heard his music and I didn't like it. My wife loves his music and there is no bloody way I'm going to kick her out of bed for that.
I liked "We are the world" the first time I heard it, though it grew tedious after awhile. It took on a whole new meaning after his trials in Californ
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Yeah, Farrah Fawcett, the red swimsuited, long blonde haired beauty in the poster that all of us older nerds had pinned up on our bedroom walls in the 70s died the same day.
She died of cancer, *not* drug overdose/addiction.
My wife is prettier than she was, but it does not kill the memory.
One of the most depressing things about aging is seeing professional athletes around your age or younger being called too old to play. Pinup girls that you (secretly) fantasized about in your youth dying of old-age type di
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Well, I suppose that depends on how you estimate the importance of modern music, doesn't it?
Re:Am I the only one (Score:4, Insightful)
Regardless of your personal opinion of the artistic merits of Jackson's work, there's no denying he had a massive effect on American pop culture, and tens of millions of Americans.
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I thought he was a has-been (Score:2)
I thought of him as just another has-been celebrity fuckup.
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I guess so. Did your parents lock you in a cave as a kid or something?
He's a 7 digit, my friend. MJ hasn't made any new truly popular music for a long time, so GP has only seen the mutilated face, the pedophilia, and the baby-dangling.
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Gotta go when to go dark like Jack Bauer (Score:3, Insightful)
I literally *hid* from the news from first report through this weekend. I knew the bullshit would be enough catastrophically raise the ocean levels once it all got flushed. All I saw was a quick shot of two girls who were weeping over Jackson's death as if they just witnessed their entire families, every friend and their pets get killed in a giant fireball. Seriously, being *that* emotionally invested in a media figure has *got* to be some sort of mental illness.
So, I'm a bit out of sync. Did North Korea nu