Web Traffic: site downtime realities

Fascinating piece in the NY Times by Brad Stone spurred by increasing service interruptions associated with websites and the service they provide). Alex Payne, 24, ironically an employee of Twitter, has even launched a site - www.downforeveryoneorjust me.com (like is it down for everybody or just me?).

Some reactions:

• Social networks are almost always free for users (even LInkedIn and Naymz are free for the basic membership). Losing your Facebook access for a few hours is not traumatic to any Facebook user I’ve talked to.

• Deep brand loyalty has saved Twitter from any significant migration towards other services (although they exist) and in fact has created noise for the brand online regarding the collective misery that its users experiences – aka an emotional relationship, although not the most highly desired form.

• When it comes to businesses that depend on web traffic to monetize their very existence – it’s a different story (especially from the business owner’s standpoint) – that’s lost revenue. Perhaps this would play into the social network’s advertising contracts from an uptime standpoint. Not to mention people still flock to Yahoo and Amazon despite any service interruptions from the past.

• Web traffic matters and ensuring higher standards should be developed. I don’t think service interruptions are significant enough to really cause concern from an internet marketing standpoint.