Rudd's overloaded social networking website crashes

Canberra, Nov.13 : Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's social networking site has crashed after the number of people registering for his "Twitter" campaign exceeded the permissible limit.

Rudd's spokeswoman said the Prime Minister had 670 Twitter followers late last night, but he lost most of them when the page crashed due to high demand.

Having witnessed the power of the web in the US presidential election campaign, Rudd and Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull are engaged in a high-tech race to win the hearts and minds of switched-on Australians.

Rudd effectively used Internet profiles on MySpace and Facebook and his slick Kevin07 website during last year's federal election but, since becoming Prime Minister, he hasn't had much time for the web.

According to The Age, Rudd sent an e-mail to all his supporters informing them of his new website, KevinPM.com.au, which includes links to MySpace, Facebook, a new YouTube account, a Flickr photo sharing page and his newly created Twitter page for broadcasting short snappy text messages.

In an introductory video on the new site, Rudd says his aim is to show the public exactly what the Government is up to and to create a two-way dialogue.

Rudd is new to Twitter, Turnbull has been communicating with Twitter users since mid-October.

Twitter's 140-character limit for each message could pose challenges for Rudd, who is known to ramble.

ANI