paidContent - Sites Prep For The Michael Jackson Memorial Traffic Surge
This story was written by Tameka Kee.
News of Michael Jackson’s death crippled sites like Twitter and even Google News when it broke—while others like Yahoo were able to handle the record traffic surges without much incident. But with millions of people ready to live stream, tweet and otherwise tune in to his memorial service online tomorrow, there’s a real question of whether the sites that are covering the event will be able to withstand the traffic onslaught.
Viewers wanting a live stream can head to E!, CNN, ABC News, Fox News, Hulu or MySpace. CNN is integrating Facebook Connect into its stream (like it did during the Obama inauguration), meaning viewers will be able to share commentary the whole time.
Of the primary live-streaming sites, it should be one of the best-prepared to handle the viewing surge, since it survived streaming more than 21 million live feeds during the inauguration. CNN told us that though it’s “extremely difficult” to predict what tomorrow’s traffic will be like, the engineering team is “provisioning for greater streaming capacity levels” than during the inauguration.
Those wanting coverage, but not necessarily a live stream, can turn to MTV.com, which is inviting users to share their Michael Jackson experiences online while it broadcasts the memorial on TV; People.com has a full list of the celebrities that will be performing at the service (not to mention a glut of celebrity responses and blog posts about Jackson’s impact on their lives). Meanwhile, the gossip blogs like TMZ continue with their ongoing coverage of random details like parking lots in LA planning to jack up fees tomorrow, to Perez Hilton’s bits about the pending autopsy.
Updated: CBSNews.com will also be live-streaming the memorial, people can tune in on CBS.com, TV.com and across CBS’ owned and operated station sites, as well as live mobile coverage on Sprint, Verizon and AT&T*.
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By Tameka Kee