@leonp That brought to mind how immediately after 9/11 news sites went more or less text only for a while. It was the only way to successfully deliver news to millions of people with way less Internet capacity than we have now. [As I write this, I find it hard to believe — others who lived through this, please confirm.]
@Miraz I seem to remember no internet being available at all on the day – at work we watched the coverage on TV (and I worked at a telecoms company), and then when I got the tube home everyone was reading a copy of The Evening Standard – in silence.
@leonp Here in Aotearoa New Zealand we watched on TV and listened to the radio. Even back then I didn't bother with newspapers. I must have been doing something on the Internet though to recall the text-only approach.
@Miraz different times. I was working on the computer, with my yahoo! home page open -- at the time that was the best all-around portal to the internet (different times #1). I had to place a phone order (different times #2) to a company in minnesota. while we were working out the order, the lady at the other end of the line kept making comments i couldn't understand. finally i asked her "is something going on?" that's how i learned about the attacks. to follow further, i dug out and plugged in our transistor radio (different times #3) to follow the story. at the time, their coverage was better (i think it was cbs news' radio feed) than what i could find on the internet (different times #4).
we didn't (and don't) have a tv: i suppose if we had this story would be very different.
@JMaxB Do you realise that was a mere 20 years ago (next month). Life is now different in so many ways we wouldn't have imagined.
@Miraz You remember correctly. I recall CNN and MSNBC being down at times. Dave Winer had good coverage and remained up the entire time.
I even mentioned on my blog that CNN and MSNBC were having issues.
@leonp I'll always prefer text! Like you say, it's searchable, easily quotable, uses less bandwidth, you can go at your own pace, etc. I'm sure that the so-called "pivot to video" had more to do with advertisers than actual user preferences.