Whit Andrews

A member of the Gartner Blog Network

Whit Andrews
VP Distinguished Analyst
10 years at Gartner
14 years IT industry

Whit Andrews is a vice president and distinguished analyst in Gartner Research. Mr. Andrews covers information access technologies, including enterprise search, and maintains the information access technology Magic Quadrant with Rita Knox. He is also a significant contributor to e-discovery… .Read Full Bio

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See Change: Hashtag Search Sted [news].com

by Whit Andrews  |  July 3, 2009  |  Comments Off

When you heard something was up about Sarah Palin, what did you do? Did you turn on the TV? Did you click to a newspaper Web site? Did you call a friend? I saw a friend’s tweet and did a hashtag search on Sara Palin. I used to work at a newspaper; I counted success one morning because I sat in a street and waited for the accelerant-sniffing dog to come in on a chopper out of Detroit, and when the dog went crazy, I called the office on a payphone and said “The dog went crazy at the front and back door — I gotta stay and get the story.” (We never said, “scoop.”) They let me stay, and the next morning we beat them and even those other guys.

And today, I searched on a hashtag, not because I needed the information instantly (well, maybe I did?) but because it was the easiest thing to do. The first tweet kicked me to CNN. Which I rely on for some news. Even though I don’t own a TV.

What an extraordinary world.

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