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The information is continuing to flow on Twitter. Here are more tweets from the Alum Rock quake. Part 1 of this transcript is here and Part 3 is here.

(bethanye): damn – missed the quake. maybe when i was on the ferry.
(PelleB): That quake was 5.6 yikes http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html
(jdischler): Back for 2 days and already an earthquake!
(dveale): ok…that was a really scary damn big earthquake..my WHOLE house shook. one cat still in hiding…not on news yet but that was big [nose sad]
(servantofchaos): Waiting to see how long it takes for MSM to report the calif earthquake
(chrisconnolly): 5.6 Earthquake. We felt it pretty damn strong here. Strongest since I’ve been in California.
(speakofthedevil): I just told a girl today that my dog has been an asshole and that we were probably going to have an earthquake. I have powerful Ju ju.
(kevinchu): 5.6 Quake, about 10 miles away (east san jose)
(ryanblock): Wow, that quake was 5.6 out in Alum Rock!
(archphoenix): Uhm, earthquake!
(alangutierrez): Waiting for CNN to have something about the earthquake. Please more Tweets.
(rizzn): I love twitter. Already learning details of the quake.
(angeSF): Earthquake
(rabbitroodle): Earthquake was 5.6 and centered a couple miles away from here!
(depa): Yup, felt the quake. Think it was near San Jose. prelim magnitude 5.6
(trascendenza): Sooo… that was an earthquake! (Only minor shaking, in my area.)
(conformer): Earthquake!
(pjhyett): having a desk that just sits on sawhorses made for an exciting ride with that quake
Veronica: 5.6
(bobspace): Tiny earthquake in south SF. Anyone else feel that?
(robertgoldberg): big earthquake in bay area looks like it was centered near milpitas according to usgs and a 5.6
(mikemiller): Jinkies! Earthquake… about a 5
(descentintomael): a little shaken by the earthquake (5.6 magnitude)
loiclemeur: seesmic is down for maintenance. Setting up new version. Thanks
(khodabakchian): whoa indeed….long and scary earthquake.
(Aubs): Lila made me go outside right before the earthquake, and besides some popping sounds, we didn’t feel ANYTHING. So weird.
(mjmalone): earthquake: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html
(Spinopsys): Cripes Twitter is fast. Earthquake in Santa Cruz.
(wrestlinghulka): @spin, DrudgeReport has a siren for the quake.
biz: And now there’s an earthquake on top of everything else
(lmc): @xtine_s long earthquake! scary!
(jaguarjaws): earthquake!!!!
(Lessien): earthquake in Cupertino
(Annaleen): 5.6 quake! I stood under a doorframe and felt like I wasn’t any safer. http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html
(technosailor): Twitter reporting breaking news, again. Earthquake in CA
(pdxsocialmedia): 5.6 earthquake located near San Jose..geesh, biggest one I’ve been in
(njohns): whoah, just felt a magnitude 5.6 earthquake – San Jose, that’s not far away. :O
(lmorchard): ABC says 5.6 magnitude quake, centered just east of Milpitas.
(mikeal): nice little earthquake
(hadashi): Hey, my first quake over 5.0 – a 5.6 near San Jose. Wee!!!
(pacificIT): Earthquake – San Diego / Bay Area
(jebuslover): http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/ Earthquake in SF Bay Area, 5.6 magnitude. Didn’t feel it in San Luis Obispo.
(charltonb): Earthquake struck the SF Bay Area – http://tinyurl.com/3d7y4w – estimated 5.6 Richter
(guder): Earthquake in NorCal felt it here in Napa. USGS says at around 6 -> http://tinyurl.com/yn59dh
(6Aers): Steve posted ‘On Vox: Earthquake!!’ on LiveJournal – http://vespa59.livejournal.com/456628.html
(cyclelicious): 5.6 earthquake centered near Milpitas (San Jose) California.
(6Aers): Steve posted ‘Earthquake!!’ on Vox – http://tinyurl.com/2aqfyj
(sanbeiji): Earthquake!!!!!! http://tinyurl.com/32l5vb
(davetong): Earthquake report on USGS web site: http://tinyurl.com/2bs3fe
(stevegio): I think I just felt an earthquake I San Francisco….yikes
(paoloxide): quake took over 10 seconds … checking on friends now.
(boompaste): Reports of a major earthquake from a friend at San Jose airport
(voidref): Note to self: Get own earthquake straps.
(rkellett): san francisco just had an earthquake — 5.6. no injuries in my household
(Dan_): Quake info: http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm
(jbeck): 5.6 magnitude earthquake 5 miles NNE of Alum Rock, CA http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm
charleneli: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm
(cynthiacloskey): Called sis in California to see if the earthquake affected her. 5.6 — enough to feel it but not enough to break anything.
(superamit): earthquake! My 1st and I didn’t even feel it [frown]
(cisellis): earthquake in the city…bout 10 seconds. not too strong but i’m not sure how to judge these yet
(voidref): you think Lauren got her earthquake straps up yet?
(rstarmer): Shake shake shake. A 5.6 quake.
(kndy): USGS Earthquake site: http://tinyurl.com/ch4m4 And I’m guessing we are going to feel a few aftershocks…
(Jtf): Just had a minor earthquake. I’ll be curious to learn how close/strong it was.
(elbowdonkey): missed a big quake somehow. maybe while on very late bart? maybe while skateboarding from Bart station?
(NurtureGirl): bay area folks: http://tinyurl.com/ywooyn shows emergency stuff. earthquake and explosion
(lisapadilla): an itty bitty quake, is all
(joyjoy1): still reeling from the 8 PM earthquake over 5 point
(annaraven): Earthquake. Nice rumble but no damage at this time.
(progrium): Earthquake : )
(garyrw): Earthquake San Jose: 5.6 2007/10/30 20:04:54 37.432N 121.776W 9.2 8 km ( 5 mi) NNE of Alum Rock, CA
(MarinaMartin): How bad an earthquake? Everyone ok?
sfearthquakes: DUDE. A 5.6 quake just happened 5 mi NNE of Alum Rock, CA. ( http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm )
(mdann50): 5.6 quake centered near san jose. felt here in palo alto
(ocean): Watching the SF earthquake virtually ripple through Twitter.
anildash: SF peeps: It was a 5.6, based in the south bay near SJ. http://tinyurl.com/njlow
(trammell): relieved that was an earthquake. Was at a red light and thought my transmission was shot.
(somewhatfrank): Everyone ok in SF after the quake?
(GalaxyGoo): 5.6 quake
(couch): BREAKING: earthquake near San Jose, CA: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm
(csm): Man, that quake was close to my Mom’s house; I’m much further away, and man that was a shaker.
(worthyadvisor): Earthquake…wow, that one was long….
(pinstripe_bindi): Earthquake!
Ross: not believing in subtle senses, hoping for a real aftershock to ride out. california rocks!
(EdRoberts): Wow… 5 point something earthquake 15 min ago in SF area
(arjunram): @burtonator: Here are the details of the earthquake http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html
(ivangonekrazy): Whoa! Earthquake
(6Aers): Stacey posted ’5.6 earthquake!’ on LiveJournal – http://chasethestars.livejournal.com/384389.html
(seaofclouds): feeling the earth quake
(revdancatt): Modesty was “Um, yeah, like, I knew that was an earthquake, because the bed shook”, we all got under the table in under 8 seconds. Yay us.
(nevermai): earthquake! http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html
(johnpastor): 5.6 earthquake in SF…
Ross: USGS is so on top of the quake stuff http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm
(kenekaplan): We just had a 5.6 earthquake, felt at 8:05 p.m. in San Mateo. Reports say it was centered north of San Jose, CA.
(xicanista): I didnt feel the earthquake.
(kevinchu): Quake details: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/nc40204628.php
(ktc19): earthquake in sunnyvale
(prodos): Trying to sleep during quake = NOT FUN [frown]
(Antigone): 5.6 magnatude earthquake, 9 miles North East of us (San Jose), 5.7 miles deep, rumbled pretty good. Cassidy’s first earthquake.
(catcubed): damn lost in the earthquake first post contest! …Hope the damage is minimal to all those over near San Jose — 5.6 is nothing to sneeze at
(BreakingNewsOn): MODERATE EARTHQUAKE HITS CALIFORNIA, DETAILS SOON.
(billiejeane): 5.6 earthquake. From the bay area… crazy!!!
(estebangs): Hrm.. Somehow managed to miss the earthquake while driving home.
(pkellner): just had earthquake palo alto. macarthur park
(gwachob): to be honest, that didn’t feel anything near a 5.6 earthquake – felt smaller
(6Aers): Henry posted ’5.6 Quake’ on LiveJournal – http://henrylyne.livejournal.com/71746.html
(ryos): earthquake….
(simX): Felt brief magnitude 5.6 earthquake. Minor shaking for about 10 sec. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Quakes/nc40204628.php
(davemc500hats): 5.6 earthquake in san jose: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.htm
(DrGreene): Earthquake just shook the store Austin and I are in. The lights still swinging afterwards.
(bodyvisual): Obligatory earthquake update
(thomwatson): Filling out the USGS questionnaire about the 5.x magnitude earthquake we just experienced; the cats were very frightened; we were excited.
(mikegoelzer): Consensus seems to be that it really was an earthquake. 4 years in California and this is my first one. (out of town for previous ones)
(pacificIT): Location of Earthquake: http://tinyurl.com/yobhmu
(jkusters): Was a 5.6 quake, 11 miles E of Milpitas, 9 miles NE of San Jose City Hall.
(krob): quake details from usgs http://tinyurl.com/234t3w
(snjones): We just had a 5.6 earthquake. That was fun. At least E2 is stable…
(jcrosby): First earthquake ever for these former Missouri residents.
(myVision): Another earthquake!
(Britneymason): ——–

big earthquake!! Biggest I’ve felt in a longtime!!
factoryjoe: This is off the hook! http://www.flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/1807201412/ #twitterquake #quake
briancaldwell: wow 5.6 magnitude in Alum Rock, that San Jose for you out of state peeps
(bsii): congrats, me: I apparently said the least interesting thing there was about the quake. Our prediction was 0.1 off. [equal tongue]
(chris): nice quake! haven’t felt 1 like that in a while!
(leahjones): erm, that you’re all safe. i had three earthquake tweets back to back to back.
t: earthquake 5.6, 15km from San Jose City Hall: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html
(gwachob): yes, cnn and news folks should import twitter quake feed
(waynesutton): Reading about earthquake in CA, I hope all my SF,CA twitter friends are ok, Twitter first in news!
(iankennedy): Can’t believe it – too busy tickling kids to realize there was an earthquake!
(eazar): Silicon Valley just had an earthquake…man I don’t miss those!
(ahockley): Looks like intial earthquake report is a 5.6 – http://urltea.com/1xtl – hoping for minimal damage to folks down there…
(vlod): first big earthquake i felt in the bay area. mag 5.6 and last for 10 secs.. http://tinyurl.com/3gb56 thought it was the big one! (threepointone): freakin' 5.6 earthquake just hit the bay area. that was scary. everything in room shook. I'll never sleep now [frown]
(DocPop): Magnitude quake north of San Jose, but we felt it SF too.
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I’ve been tracking “quake” and “earthquake” on Twitter. There was a continuous flow of information as soon at the quake hit.

9:14 pm Update:
Wanna see more? Part 2 of this transcript is here.

10:31 pm Update:
Part 3 is here. That’s all folks!

10/31/2007 Update:
Just wanted to clarify that the start of this transcript was about a minute after the quake – i.e. this does not include the very first tweets. According to @laughingsquid, @sofia was the first person to post to twitter about this quake (interview with the internet-famous Sofia here).

twitter: andykaufman: earthquake nice shaker in the mission/noe
burtonator: WELL THAT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE…..
elatable: Huge earthquake in East Bay
mintigal: Just felt our first tremor, very slight, but like a big rig riding past
me: Track quake
twitter: You’ll now receive updates matching ‘quake’. To stop, send ‘untrack quake’.
sacca: Earthquake!!!!! Woohoo!!
me: track earthquake
twitter: (joshtynjala): Just felt my first quake. That was awesome!
You’ll now receive updates matching ‘earthquake’. To stop, send ‘untrack earthquake’.
briancaldwell: my whole building just shifted
(oscarjr): omg! did u feel the quake?
(sallypnut): Whoa. Hello, earthquake.
(krob): Earthquake in the Bay Area!
(tychay): Earthquake. Sweet.
(CraigB): EARTHQUAKE!
(vglshn): An earthquake has my cat on edge.
(chipotlecoyote): Earthquake. Fascinating.
(trevor_m_wilson): earthquake in Berkeley
(jimgoldstein): Earthquake in SF
(rcrowley): Earthquake!
(jonk): earthquake!!!!
(MizLit): Earthquake!
(Golabutron): Earthquake!
(malerin): EARTHQUAKE
Nymo: OMG, Earthquake
(jakeludington): Anyone else feel an earthquake in the South Bay about now?
(lloydgomez): Modesto just had an earthquake! Yikes…..
(shawnbot): Whee, earthquake!
(sct): earthquake??
(homesliced): a little shaken from my 1st SF earthquake
(Fenchurch): Whoa, violent earthquake. Not the rolling kind, but a shaky one.
(stevepm): Hello earthquake, welcome to my dinner party.
(hizKNITS): earthquake?
(bernie): wow. best quake yet!
(synergist): Earthquake!
(deebeedee): WOW, we just had an earthquake!!
(aliciarenee): Earthquake! and haus still stands. huzzah.
(abhaykumar): Whoah. Anyone else just feel that? My first earthquake!
(CathyE): ZOMG! FIRST EARTHQUAKE!
(mjyazzie): Earthquake!!!!!
(head_zoo_keeper): that was a pretty big earthquake — a fore-shock?
(lhalff): Quake!
(mpeachey): Earthquake. San mateo. Decent size. Lasted 15i20 seconds.
(dan_mcweeney): That was either a small earthquake or a big ass truck.
(romeroax): Earthquake?
(catcubed): earthquake! Long and fairly strong one too.
(AnthonyBaker): Cripes! That was a big earthquake.
leahculver: earthquake!
(mat): Wow! Big quake!
(dialect): WHOA, we just had a crazy earthquake here!!!
(lisapadilla): earthquake
(scottchaile): We just had a big earthquake!
(shirasade): Wowza – earthquake! I guess I really am in California…
(askpang): Just had an earthquake! Not big enough to knock anything over, but big enough to make the house shake.
(bigepaz): Earthquake?
(misskaren): hmmm earthquake. guessing high 4, 4.8
(radioluxembourg): earthquake?
(odannyboy): EARTHQUAKE!
(goodwillstacy): Earthquake!
(SlightlySasha): Jesus. Earth quake!!
(jonchan): earthquake?
(Frang): significant quake just hit. Don’t know size just yet. Lasted a long time too
(kurtbrockett): whoa…..earthquake
(booboolina): Earthquake! And a long one at that.
(DylanThawt): woah, just felt a gnarly earthquake.
(donpark): whoa. a long earthquake
(kevindente): Earthquake!
(halletecco): earthquake
(kenn): Earthquake!
(musicalholiday): Whoa. Earthquake!
(bsii): earthquake.
(rickyromero): Holy shit, that quake spooked me.
(samuraiBSD): woah, mild quake in Oakland…anyone else feel that (if you’re in the Bay Area, that is)
(caffeina): Earthquake or whatever. NOT BAD.
(torrez): Big quake.
(shaper): Serious earthquake in SF a second ago, I actually got under my desk.
(thomashan): major earthquake in the Bay Area, CA!
(caffeined): Whoa! Good size earthquake just now.
(someToast): The first one not so much, but this quake I noticed.
(yoandrocky): earthquake!!
(PamK): Rumbles of something like an earthquake here in Hillsborough, CA
(rafer): earthquake in the mission! 4.4?
(jdaisy): earthquake
(whatman75): Woah! Nothing like a little earthquake to go along with my walk home
(gils9965): Woohoo. Mini earthquake. I thought I had too much to drink.
(mtanne): Wow. BIG earthquake. Lastest a long time.
(Quikchange): Earthquake! It was my first one since moving to California. I was hoping that shit would fall down and none did though [frown]
(Kittenbomb): EARTHQUAKE AHHHHH
(raynbow_me): We just had one HELL of an earthquake
(theleftcoast): just experienced a rather lengthy yet mild earthquake. The apartment building was swaying.
(trishC): That was an earthquake…..yep, whole building moved….. a bit freaky…. yeah…
(csoriano): Holy shite. In Gilroy at an Arby’s. EARTHQUAKE JUST NOW!!! Crazy. Everything seems to be ok.
(labspaz): I am missing Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin… Cause of work… ;( and we just had an earthquake…
(mikecreighton): A little put off by the earthquake that just happened. So was Rexie.
(aki_wah): my first earthquake in the new apartment! http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html

Stewart Butterfield (flickr), Biz Stone (Twitter), and Joshua Schachter (del.icio.us) at the Building Awesome Web Sites & Services Using the Power of Happy Users panel.

More photos here.

Chris Pirillo was hosting a live call on Ustream.tv when an earthquake hit in Mexico. The word got around on Twitter, Scoble blogged about it, and within minutes, there were over 60 people on the call. Then Chris pulled in a caller from Mexico using Skype video.

Update:
More video from earlier in the call here and here. And a video from later in the night here.

A local news station in San Francisco (KPIX) ran a story tonight on Twitter. Robert Scoble (PodTech) and Biz Stone (Obvious) are featured in the video.

First off, if they ever go in this direction, Twitter needs to be very careful with how they go about it or else they will lose their loyal users. Maybe they could add a preference setting that allows you to filter out posts related to buying and selling items, similar to the new Filtering feature on Flickr. They might also want to offer a Mature filter to keep out the seedy stuff. I could see some very cool mobile applications built around this. Imagine going to a sold out Arcade Fire show and using Twitter on your mobile phone to find people who are trying to unload unused tickets at the last minute within 0.5 miles of the venue. I would use that.

How would Twitter make money on this? They could charge the seller a fee for showing the For Sale tweet in a prominent location. Or go the craigslist route and charge a fee for real estate listings, job postings, etc.

12/29/2008 Update:
A service called Tweebay just launched a few days ago. They allow you to post items for sale on Twitter. I haven’t had a chance to look at it closely yet but it looks like an interesting concept.

Today Steve Rubel points out that Twitter is probably racking up SMS fees on the international tweets. He also points out that the site does not appear to be monetized now and that could be a problem. So building on my Future of Twitter post from yesterday, let’s look at how Twitter might monetize a partnership with a big company. Take the Starbucks example. Let’s assume that there are 20,000 people on Twitter who have added Starbucks as a Friend in order to get a few promotions a week – e.g. a free cookie with your coffee, a free tall coffee, etc. If Twitter charged Starbucks a few cents per tweet per follower, the revenue from Starbucks might looks something like this:

20,000 followers
10 tweets (promotions) per week
$.05 cents per tweet for each follower (maybe more???)
that’s $10 K per week or about $40K per month

If you sign up 100-200 companies doing something similar then we’re talking some real revenue. Probably more than enough to offset those international SMS fees.

Last night I listened to an interview that net@nite did with Twitter founder Evan Williams from earlier this month. Towards the end of the interview he talked about ways that they might monetize the Twitter platform in the future. The example that he gave was a movie promotion where you could follow the “tweets” of a character in an upcoming movie. This got me to thinking about where Twitter is going. I’m not saying I’m agreeing with the commercialization of Twitter, but how much longer will be it be until your Twitter page looks something like this?

5/29/2007 Update:
Delta Airlines is on Twitter now. Details about this on Jaunted.

6/4/2007 Update:
Read/Write Web spotted Amazon.com on Twitter.

7/13/2007 Update:
JetBlue (one of the companies that I used as an example in my original post) is on Twitter now.