Update:
Check out this update from Forbes Blog:
Update: Topsy’s “facebook down” count over the past hour has surpassed 13,000 tweets, over triple the amount I stated in the 20 odd minutes since my first post. My access to Facebook is flickering in and out of being usable as of 10:16 PST.
Update 10:23 p.m. PST – A Facebook representative responded to my request for information behind the downtime in fairly vague language. No hint as to whether or not it has anything to do with tomorrow’s event. Here’s the body of the response:
“Hey Mike,We were experiencing some site issues causing Facebook to be slow or unavailable for some people. We worked to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”Update 10:52 pm PST: Wow, I’m now seeing reports that Digg.com is down. My trying to access the site brought up the site’s version their own ‘fail whale’:
The two sites having nearly concurrent downtimes probably isn’t a related occurrence, but it’s striking, especially after yesterday’s 11-hour marathon of downtime at Foursquare.
Good news, though. Facebook seems to be back up and functional as of 10:45 p.m. PST.
My follow up question to Facebook press was responded to with little clarification. After I asked whether or not tonight’s downtime had anything to do with tomorrow’s event, a representative told me the following:We don’t have a lot of details right now. I can give you more info in the morning after they know for sure all the details.We’ll see what tomorrow brings at Facebook’s HQ event.
Check also A Facebook Redesign Likely Being Unveiled Tomorrow After An Employee “Lockdown” from TechCrunch.