The death of Michael Jackson Thursday sent the internet a surge of traffic that caused crashes and slowdowns in what one website is calling a major "wake-up call" for internet infrastructure.
Here is a roundup of links related to the slowdown:
DataCenterKnowledge: Chart shows that "web creaks as Jackson fans mourn" web site response time grows, availability down
TechCrunch: TMZ, which broke the story, crashed on its scoop boom; Perez Hilton also reportedly down
TechCrunch: Twitter disables search to accommodate surge
Venture Beat:
As tragic as Michael Jackson's death is, it's only a small taste of what would happen in a true calamity. If the servers go down, how are we going to get our Gmail or Yahoo Mail? Who will be there to listen when we collectively Tweet for help? What will we do if the emergency plan is stored on the network?
It's a wake-up call for the web, and for those who are building its infrastructure and plumbing for it.
Billboard: Jackson music dominates iTunes, Amazon
Additionally, NBC Nightly News recorded 3.4 million video streams Thursday night, its most ever, and Yahoo! News set a record in unique visitors with 16.4 million in one day.
Note: An earlier version of this story linked to a CNet post, since corrected, saying that ABC News dropped to 11% availability. The correction appears below:
Keynote initially said ABCNews.com was nearly impossible to log on to for nearly two hours. Dan Berkowitz, a Keynote spokesman, said Friday that in truth the site delivered pages to visitors at close to normal speed during the hour-long traffic spike following Jackson's death. A representative for Disney, which owns ABC, said the company saw "no dips in performance" as a result of the traffic glut.
"We apologize for this," Berkowitz said. "This has never happened before and it won't ever happen again.""