I don't know about an earthquake, never felt one, but in all honesty I would rather read an article the 140 characters would be a tease as much specifics couldn't be given.
If you think about it twitter would be good for traffic or something like that, but only if a radio station or some larger element was relaying the message.
The same goes for a natural disaster, I'm not going to go look and see about a tornado or something along those lines on twitter, but a news company could relay it to me and this is about the biggest use I see of twitter search.
In all honesty if I was searching for a subject it would be because I am aware of it and want to learn more, be it a disaster, story, or subject; twitter to me is exactly what it claims to be a way to update your status quickly and as much as you want.
Thing is though, you aren't viewing 140 characters at a time. You're viewing a page of 20 of the most recent 140-character posts from a variety of people (all with differing perspectives) at the same time. It's not better or worse than a news outlet, it's just different.
If you think about it twitter would be good for traffic or something like that, but only if a radio station or some larger element was relaying the message.
The same goes for a natural disaster, I'm not going to go look and see about a tornado or something along those lines on twitter, but a news company could relay it to me and this is about the biggest use I see of twitter search.
In all honesty if I was searching for a subject it would be because I am aware of it and want to learn more, be it a disaster, story, or subject; twitter to me is exactly what it claims to be a way to update your status quickly and as much as you want.