Blockchain.info Recent Crash

[kosmonaut]

Here's a snapshot I took right before Blockchain went down on the 17th. Two blocks go missing. Next millions of BTC get paid out. I know this looks to be a glitch of some sort but could someone please explain in simple terms how and where blockchain.info gets its information?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v483/vodko/Untitled1_zps7ccb3734.png

[crazy_rabbit]

They run an instance of the full bitcoin software and they simply listen (and print on the website) the data transmitted by the network.

At the bottom of the Blockchain website is a link to more information about how it works. The software is open source and can be found on github.