'Ismail Ax' sparks web frenzy
All at once, the world went searching for the meaning of "Ismail Ax".
Those two words, written in red ink on one arm of Cho Seung Hui, the 23-year-old Virginia Tech student suspected of the campus shooting spree, set off a massive internet hunt by the public for clues to what might have motivated the nation's worst mass killings.
Almost as soon as the Chicago Tribune's website reported that detail, which was then picked up by news organisations around the world, the blogosphere filled with theories about the possible meaning of "Ismail Ax." Hundreds of bloggers speculated on a link to Islam or to literature; thousands offered their opinions and millions read the commentaries, according to Technorati.com.
Internet users seemed particularly curious about what Cho might have meant by the phrase.
Technorati.com, a web site that tracks the blogosphere, said that by late afternoon Tuesday, there were nearly 300 blog posts regarding Ismail Ax.
The phrase was the 10th most popular search counted by Technorati. With two other terms related to the Virginia Tech killing in its top 10, that meant that millions of people got online and did a search of those or very similar words, said Derek Gordon, Technorati's marketing director.
"To raise into the top 10, there are initially tens of thousands of searches, then hundreds of thousands, then millions," Gordon said.
There were other reactions. A TV repair shop owner in Corpus Christi, Texas, registered the domain name http://www.ismailax.com the morning after the shootings.
other links on this:http://crimeblog.us/?p=370
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/offbeat/2007/04/ismail_ax_the_vt_gunmans_final.html
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i17497
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JerryBowyer/2007/04/18/ismail_ax_the_shooter_was_another_son_of_sacrifice&Comments=true
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704170800apr18,1,6836393.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
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