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Twitter goes into battle mode in anticipation of Apple news

Last year, the service didn't make it through Steve Jobs' keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference. But this year will be different, a post from the company blog explains.

Caroline McCarthy Former Staff writer, CNET News
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos.
Caroline McCarthy

Microblogging service Twitter is a central hub of geek chatter, and if there's anything geeks love to chatter about, it's Apple news.

Consequently, Twitter has bolstered its servers in anticipation of Monday's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), at which healthy doses of Steve Jobs announcements are expected.

"We are expecting approximately 10 times our normal daily traffic so we've made some plans to accommodate this dramatic surge," a post on the company blog explained. Last year at WWDC, the service crashed--as it's often prone to do.

In an extreme situation, the service can go into a "gray mode" that eliminates all but the most essential features. It's also partnered with aggregation service Summize and is encouraging particularly news-hungry Twitterers to check there for updates from Jobs & co. rather than just hitting reload on Twitter--and hence swamping the servers.