Google Mistakes Michael Jackson's Death for Attack

By Jane McEntegart, published on June 26, 2009 at 10:20 AM
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: , , , , | Themes: The Internet
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It seemed the entire world ground to a halt yesterday when news of Michael Jackson’s death was first announced by celebrity gossip site, TMZ. Then, people all over the globe sprang to life, passing along the tragic news through whatever medium they could.

Aside from the usual television, radio and internet news reports, the news was being circulated via email, text message, Facebook, Twitter and more.

While my immediate reaction to the CNN tweet that said Michael Jackson had suffered cardiac arrest was to check The Superficial, it turns out an awful lot of folks just Googled the singer's name. In fact so many people typed his name into Google that the search engine thought something sinister was afoot.

Google confirmed to the BBC that when millions of people Googled Jackson at the same time, it feared it was under attack. Users were instead shown a page that read, "your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application."

"It's true that between approximately 2.40PM Pacific and 3.15PM Pacific, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson and saw the error page," said Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker.

Google was not the only site brought down by the sudden passing of the King of Pop. The Twitter Fail Whale was on show for all to see as the site saw the number of updates per second double and intermittent crashing. Facebook status updates reportedly tripled. Being the first to break the news, TMZ’s website was inaccessible for some people, as was Perez Hilton’s blog as people rushed to verify the news.

However one of the bigger issues people had was with CNN. The site’s twitter was updating with news that the singer was had suffered cardiac arrest and was in a coma while other sites were reporting that Jackson had already passed away, something that did not go unnoticed by its followers.

British Comedian, Alan Davies

Twitter user @acererak

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Comments

tenor77 06/26/2009 4:43 PM
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You know I'm dead! I'm dead! You know it! Really, Really dead

What too soon?

hopiamani 06/26/2009 5:10 PM
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bing ftw!

lol

Anonymous 06/26/2009 5:15 PM
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yeah your an idiot. poking fun at a man thats passed is not only bad carma it makes you look like a douch bag.

I was never a fan of him personaly but the world lost an icon thats for sure.

gellert 06/26/2009 5:16 PM
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lol fail...

tenor77 06/26/2009 5:27 PM
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tig :
yeah your an idiot. poking fun at a man thats passed is not only bad carma it makes you look like a douch bag.I was never a fan of him personaly but the world lost an icon thats for sure.



I don't like pediphiles. I'm not happy he's dead but I'm not sad either. I'd say Karma's already done it's work.

Upendra09 06/26/2009 5:31 PM
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Michael Jackson actually had some good music, most likely better than anyone on this site can make so give the man some respect.

^+1 for tig

Upendra09 06/26/2009 5:35 PM
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eddieroolz 06/26/2009 5:41 PM
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zak_mckraken 06/26/2009 5:50 PM
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Quote :Then, people all over the globe sprang to life, passing along the tragic news through whatever medium they could.


Hell yeah, aside from the TV and radio, everyone in WoW was talking about MJ's death. Well, except maybe The Barrens chat...

Anonymous 06/26/2009 5:51 PM
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tenor77 06/26/2009 5:54 PM
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jdotsu :
Wow your fucking retarded it was proven he never molested anybody everybody knows those families were just after his money and wanted a spot on the news...



OJ was acquitted as well. Money buys innocence in the US.

hixbot 06/26/2009 5:56 PM
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"thought sometimes sinister was afoot." ?? please proof read.

computabug 06/26/2009 6:06 PM
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cl_spdhax1 06/26/2009 6:09 PM
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ill pour some of my jesus juice on him

bfstev 06/26/2009 6:24 PM
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jdotsu :
Wow your fucking retarded it was proven he never molested anybody everybody knows those families were just after his money and wanted a spot on the news...


and i'm sure the 20 mil he paid that one family was because they had no evidence.
Upendra09 :
And why do u guys focus on his crime? If u don't appreciate his crimes then why are u thinking about it?


He touched children. Even (smooth) criminals think thats wrong. No matter how good his music was doesn't eclipse the horrible injustice and suffering he imposed on those children. They wont recover from that.

skittle 06/26/2009 6:36 PM
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gellert 06/26/2009 6:39 PM
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omnimodis78 06/26/2009 7:26 PM
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deuce271 06/26/2009 7:29 PM
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Do you ever have someone proof read your articles before you post them? All Toms articles are littered with misspelled words, poor grammar, and typos.

"In fact so many people typed his name into Google that the search engine thought sometimes sinister was afoot."

Pei-chen 06/26/2009 7:30 PM
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Come to think of it, people in North Korea and Bhutan haven’t heard the news. Maybe I can make money from this somehow.....

hixbot 06/26/2009 7:53 PM
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uh omnimodis78, why did you quote my post about bad proofreading, then accuse me of not knowing what i'm talking about, and rant about MJ. Did you read what I posted? it had nothing to do with MJ.

also deuce271, a little late on that one.

kc5sym 06/26/2009 8:16 PM
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i've always felt sorry for him. he was robbed of his childhood and very few people in the world have ever been in his place.
personally, I believe that he wasn't a pedophile and was just a misunderstood child himself.
his contributions to the entertainment industry were over long time ago and I doubt he would have made any true come-back... but i'm sorry to see that he won't get a chance at peace in his old age either.
not knowing the full details of his death atm... I question whether his early death from a heart attack will vindicate him to a certain degree. could it be that his claims of illness all these years were right and he wasn't bleaching his skin and walking around with surgical masks because he was crazy?

Hanin33 06/26/2009 8:35 PM
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some people have very strange views on life... so he was an entertainer.. big deal... many people contribute far more with little to no recognition and yet, this person who sang a few songs and was most definitely doing provocative things with children (sleeping in the same room as them in a multi-room mansion is bizarre) is being hailed as someone to look up to? even if the allegations were untrue, he placed himself in the position to be accused. anyone else doing the same things would be in prison even on hearsay. so i ask, why should we extend praise to this person beyond wot anyone else would get?

The Schnoz 06/26/2009 8:52 PM
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All this Michael Jackson hating has got to stop. He was never convicted of child molestation and it's very possible all that was lies to make money. I'm just glad to know that Michael Jackson is now somewhere in heaven blowing Bubbles.....the chimp. BTW, did anyone else wonder if they took the blanket off of "Blanket" to cover Michael up. Besides, look at the bright side, he could always come back as a dancing zombie. Frankly I'm suprised he died this young, after all many scientists have said that Jesus Juice is supposed to make you live longer. All jokes aside the man was a legend no matter how strange he was and he has the #1 selling album of all time. RIP Michael Jackson, for your years of entertaining us on and off stage. I ask that all of you poor some of your 40 on the curb, or if you don't have a 40 dangle a baby off a balcony, out of respect for the King of Pop. Here's to Michael Jackson, the most soulful white man who ever lived.

Anonymous 06/26/2009 9:06 PM
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Anonymous 06/26/2009 9:15 PM
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i just think he wanted his childhood back and never found neverland while he was alive... hopefully he will find it wherever he is now... RIP

omnimodis78 06/26/2009 9:27 PM
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HIXBOT! I am so sorry... I wrote that before my first cup of coffee and apparently I hit the wrong quotation mark... Yes, it was a stupid mistake on my part!!!! I meant to comment on the post above yours. Sorry again.

Bunz_of_Steel 06/26/2009 10:17 PM
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Well now this is more like the kind of I.T. news that feeds the brain and can further my career! WoW THG way to go!! Sorry the guy passed away but I'm here to read about I.T. stuff not..... phfff!

m3kt3k 06/26/2009 10:21 PM
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FOCUS PEOPLE FOCUS...
This is about google not able to contened with a real world matter. This is what they brag they can handle and yet when it happens they fail epicly. Can you imagine if Obama got shot. Googles response would be its an attack and stop googling Obama.

Bunz_of_Steel 06/26/2009 10:25 PM
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that's worth two m3kt3k! thot I wuz only guy feelin it.

omnimodis78 06/26/2009 10:31 PM
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Actually you guys are right - I did originally mean to mention that this story is also a bit misleading about one fact, I recall googling yesterday when I started getting that message from google but it wasn't even related to MJ or death, or anything to do with what might have been associated with that event. So, Google kinda lied here when they stated that "...difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson and saw the error page..." They should have just been open about the fact that random searchers were also affected. Oh my, I could not even imagine what would happen if a world-breaking news event would occur. Yeah, kinda scary actually.


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