Innovation: Why don't users mind when Twitter breaks? by Tom Simonite
Millions of conversations around the world were rudely interrupted last Thursday when a massive cyber-attack shut down the microblogging service Twitter. Normal service wasn't resumed until the weekend. Google, Facebook and blogging service LiveJournal also came under attack during the same period.
The incident, believed to have been the result of efforts to silence a single Georgian blogger, has demonstrated the vulnerability of social networks and the power of politically-motivated hackers. But it's also provided a real-world experiment in users' reactions when a supposedly critical service is abruptly yanked away. Surprisingly, the outages provoked relatively little outrage – but why?
