Yiying Lu's illustration of a whale lifted by birds appeared whenever Twitter was over capacity, which in 2010 was often: during the World Cup, the Lost finale and the iPhone 4 launch. The Fail Whale had fan clubs and merchandise, and became a symbol of a start-up straining under success.
- Type
- moment
- Origin
- Twitter error page, 2008
- Peak
- 2009-2010
Related
- WebsiteVerified
Twitter
140 characters and the Fail Whale
Twitter turned four in 2010 and became the internet's newswire. Users sent about 50 million tweets a day in February and roughly 90 million a day by September, the Library of Congress agreed to...
- CultureSupported
FAIL and WIN
Epic fail, FAIL Blog, and the Fail Whale
"FAIL", stamped over a photo of a mishap, was 2010's favourite one-word verdict, with "epic fail" for the worst cases and "WIN" for their opposite. FAIL Blog published a stream of them, and Twitter's...
- SocialSupported
The World Cup sets Twitter records and summons the Fail Whale
The FIFA World Cup in South Africa drove record tweet rates, including 3,283 tweets per second after Japan's goal against Denmark on 24 June, and repeated Twitter outages.
