Whitney Houston's Death Causes Worldwide Spikes on Social Media

As the world is in shock over the death of music superstar Whitney Houston, people flocked to social media to express their grief as well as share their fondest memories of the music icon.

As reported by CNN, within the 1st hour the news broke, 2.4 million tweets were posted about Whitney Houston. At its peak during that hour, there were over a thousand tweets per second. Several colleagues and personalities in the music industry such as Mariah Carey, Usher, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Gloria Estefan, Ryan Seacrest went to twitter to share their sentiments. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tweeted "R.I.P. Whitney Houston. Thank you for the amazing music you brought into the world."

On Facebook, people were sharing their favorite Whitney Houston songs by posting various YouTube video clips of the music diva on their walls and sharing it with their friends.

PH Trending Topics: Feb 12, 2012 2:57pm

In the Philippines where Whitney Houston songs have been permanent fixtures on radio, in concerts, in singing contests down to karaoke and videoke favorites, 8 out of the top 10 trending topics within the first few hours were all about Whitney Houston.

Among those Twitter trending topics are R.I.P Whitney Houston, #FavoriteWhitneySong , #IWillAlwaysLoveYou, The Bodyguard, Wanna Dance With Somebody , GreatestLove and RuntoYou

Popular Filipino singers such as Lea Salonga, Regine Velasquez, Carol Banawa, Christian Bautista, Sharon Cuneta and Gary Valenciano have also expressed their sentiments about Whitney's unexpected death.

Messages are a mixture of sadness, shock, condolences and gratitude for the wonderful music Whitney has shared with the world.

Charice Pempengco, who sang "I Will Always Love You" on the Ellen Degeneres Show and "I Have Nothing" on the Oprah Winfrey Show which catapulted her to international fame, tweeted about the loss of Whitney Houston comparing it to losing a relative.