flashcrowd

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

[edit] English

The term “flashcrowd” is considered a neologism based on standardized Wiktionary criteria. Neologisms are newly acknowledged terms. They typically have not been in circulation long enough or widely enough for their social status to be determined. Neologisms can be nonces, slang terms, or even illiteracies. The citation of “flashcrowd” may be restricted to certain other contexts that have not been fully investigated, such as industry jargon or regional use. The term may not generally be understood even within those contexts.

[edit] Alternative spellings

• flash crowd

[edit] Noun

flashcrowd, also flash crowd

1. The sudden increase in popularity of an Internet site or resource due to an event or link from another site.
   • 1971, Larry Niven, Flash Crowd

     The mall riot was the first successful riot in twenty years. “The police can get to a riot before it's a riot,” said McCord. “We call them flash crowds, and we watch for them.”

   • 2004 December 18, Johan Pouwelse, “The BitTorrent P2P file-sharing system”, The Register [1].

     We now focus on the system's reaction to the sudden popularity of a single (new) file. This phenomenon is also called the flashcrowd effect.