Probe into how Google mix-up caused $1 billion run on United



  • oops.



  • Don't people read the dates on things anymore?



  • Nope.



  • @TooWhiteAndNerdy said:

    Don't people read the dates on things anymore?
     

    There was no dateline on the article that sparked all of this... Had there been a date, Google News would not have re-run the story as new.



  • The stock plunged to $3.00 / share, then it rose back to $11.00 - over the course of what? A week or so? (just guessing here) I could have nearly quadrupled my savings!



  • @Huf Lungdung said:

    The stock plunged to $3.00 / share, then it rose back to $11.00 - over the course of what? A week or so? (just guessing here) I could have nearly quadrupled my savings!

    Mental Note: When some important shares plunge, BUY BUY BUY!!!

    ... unless it's ENRON. In that case, just let it die.



  • @Huf Lungdung said:

    The stock plunged to $3.00 / share, then it rose back to $11.00 - over the course of what? A week or so? (just guessing here) I could have nearly quadrupled my savings!

    Closer to a couple of hours!  http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=UAUA&t=5d


  • @danixdefcon5 said:

    @Huf Lungdung said:

    The stock plunged to $3.00 / share, then it rose back to $11.00 - over the course of what? A week or so? (just guessing here) I could have nearly quadrupled my savings!

    Mental Note: When some important shares plunge, BUY BUY BUY!!!

    ... unless it's ENRON. In that case, just let it die.

    I doubt you would have had the chance to buy the shares.  They were mostly dumped by automated programs and were rebought quickly by traders who realized UAL wasn't bankrupt.  Given the magnitude of what happened, most of the shares were probably bought up by large investment firms rather than private traders, so most likely your Average Joe never even had a shot at the $3 price.

     

    The really awesome part would be if the article was bumped up to the top of the popular news category by being crawled a single time by the Google search spider.  And of course, I think TRWTF here is the Sun Sentinel for not putting datelines on its articles. 



  • @TooWhiteAndNerdy said:

    Don't people read the dates on things anymore?
    Apparently I'm legendary for not doing so.



  • @Frigax said:

    @TooWhiteAndNerdy said:

    Don't people read the dates on things anymore?
     

    There was no dateline on the article that sparked all of this... Had there been a date, Google News would not have re-run the story as new.

    See, we have what's called "fail-safe".  That would be not assuming a date when there isn't one.

     

    And then we have fail-dangerous.   That's basically the same thing as the clbuttic mistake.



  •  My favorite part of the news story is:

     "To many, the episode has been a reminder that computer programs, no matter how sophisticated, can be a poor substitute for human beings."

    which is then contradicted directly by the 2nd page saying:

    "The page also fooled Bloomberg. Bloomberg News staffers posted headlines noting first the UAL share price drop, and then, at 11:06 a.m. EDT, a bankruptcy denial from United." and

    "A different Bloomberg News staffer working the story found the bankruptcy story on the Sun Sentinel site and, at 11:07a.m., posted a headline about the bankruptcy.
     I think it's actually doing quite an accurate job of substituting human beings.

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