I was reading some online news site and came across this travel article about how a mix-up in Google News on September 8 caused United Airlines stock price to plunge from $12 to $3 per share, resulting in a loss of about $1 billion on the total stock’s value.

According to the news reports, a newspaper’s online website re-published an old article from 2002 when United Airlines filed for bankruptcy which was later picked up by Google as recent news. When the United Airlines bankruptcy article was seen by it’s stockholders the stock plummeted.

The news fascinated me and I thought you guys might enjoy it as well. Here’s some links to the story if you’d like to read more about it:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4742147.ece
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-united-old-story-sep8,0,7800230.story
http://www.itworld.com/internet/54847/tribune-blames-google-united-stock-crash