What happens when there’s a big boom in a high-tech city? Do you turn on the TV? Punch up the newspaper’s website? Nope. You go to Twitter.
A mysterious boom that shook homes around Portland resulted in thousands of Tweets with the hashtag #pdxboom, and soon thereafter, hundreds of pins on a Google map, marking locations where people heard it. When the TV stations and newspapers reported the story, they referenced the map, as well, resulting in more pins.
“In just a few hours, a pattern emerged, with reports clustering around one city park,” wrote Marshall Kirkpatrick on ReadWriteWeb. “This morning the police found a detonated pipe bomb there and cited the Google Map in their announcement.” Pretty cool stuff.
