Facebook has been crashing for the last 24 hours. Rumours are floating around online that it's because of a hacker and that the glitch exposed users' inboxes. Not sure if there's any truth in this, but I'll post updates when I'm next online if I hear any more.
Update: Twitter followers say that the outage may have been caused by the flushing out of third party Facebook applications that are being used for ID theft
I was certainly very surprised (and a little concerned!) when signing in yesterday morning. I initially thought it was just Microsoft members affected. Ironically I found it hindered productivity, as I was trying to demonstrate the site to a colleague at the time.
Posted by: Matt | August 01, 2007 at 11:32 AM
I dunno, looks like it wasn't a hack but a bad build. Either way it opens the door for some other social networks like ClutterMe.
Posted by: mark | August 01, 2007 at 07:07 PM
Hmmm, I had three unread messages today. After the site had gone down and I could finally return to my inbox, two looked as though they had been read (meaning they weren't unopened anymore) and the other had disappeared.
Spooky.
Posted by: Stephen Davies | August 01, 2007 at 07:23 PM
All sounds bad. All web services get outages though. I've worked with some and it's never going to get good press. If Facebook responds with some kind of assurance it would be good... or explanation why inbox messages are being mysteriously read?
Posted by: Drew B | August 01, 2007 at 10:37 PM
A friend of mine, we'll call her x, complained to me yesterday that she'd been given the inbox of another friend, let's call her y, in error - in which she found an email to friend y from friend z, complaining vehemently about how x had inconveniently arranged her wedding so that it clashes with z's birthday. Ouch.
Posted by: Sarah Stimson | August 02, 2007 at 08:35 AM