Internet buzzes with news of bin Laden's death

In Washington, D.C., people flocked to the White House after hearing the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed. In New York, they went to Ground Zero. And just about everywhere else they went to the Internet, to share their thoughts on the death of the world's most famous terrorist.

More than a half hour before President Obama's speech Sunday night about the killing of Osama bin Laden, reports of bin Laden's death began to circulate via Twitter.

The news dominated the social-networking site once it became official.

Before long, seven of the top 10 topics on Twitter were related to the announcement, including "Obama," "Navy Seals," and "Abbottabad," according to WhatTheTrend.com. A Facebook page called "Osama Bin Laden is dead" quickly gained more than 200,000 fans. Google News listed 4,910 articles on the subject.

Social-media blog Mashable, a USA TODAY partner, took an informal poll of its tech-savvy audience to find out how they had learned the news. At the time of this writing, 43% of the 6,568 respondents had found out via Twitter. Nearly 18% learned from Facebook, while 14% saw the news on TV.

"Twitter is our Times Square on this victory day," journalist Jeff Jarvis tweeted.

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