Michael Jackson memorial drawing 6,000 messages a second on CNN/Facebook site

Michael Jackson memorial drawing 6,000 messages a second on CNN/Facebook site

July 7, 2009 | Dean Takahashi

Like millions of others, I tuned in at 10 am Pacific time to watch the Michael Jackson memorial service, live over the web. While I wanted to share the experience and remember MJ, I also wanted to see how the Internet held up under the weight of so much video traffic.

After a few seconds of video, the picture on CNN.com stalled. Clearly, the web was choking. But viewers seemed to be having fun with the Facebook widget, which let them post status updates and watch the short messages scroll by alongside the video on the CNN web site. CNN said hundreds of thousands of people were logged into the Facebook widget and 6,000 status updates were coming in every minute. That was more than during the Obama inauguration.

I cut over to Hulu.com, which showed me a 30-second video ad before starting. They were on commentary, so I switched to Justin.tv, which handled the live streaming for E! Online. The sites seemed to be handling the traffic well, but my sense is they flowed even smoother once it was clear the ceremonies were delayed.

Smoky Robinson came on stage to talk. The crowd applauded when the family came in. Then the audio cut out from Staples Center. Jesse Jackson, Coby Bryant, Brooke Shields, Robert Townsend and a host of other celebrities were inside. But the video didn’t show any of them on the floor of the arena.

The TV networks managed to get people to tune in early by running live video of MJ’s motorcade moving down a completely cleared Los Angeles freeway (filmed from helicopters). Inside the darkened Staples Center, the crowd of 17,500 was silent, according to commentators.

Finally, the memorial service began at 10:35 am. Then a choir came on and sang a song with the line, “We are going to see the king.” The pastor came on and said, “We come together in this space where only days ago Michael sang and dance and brought his joy as only Michael could.” Singer Mariah Carey came out on stage next and sang “I’ll Be There,” accompanied by Trey Lorenz. CNN briefly cut out of the song and then returned to it, for an unknown reason. On Facebook, snarky and sentimenal comments rolled by. Many said they were crying. Another said, “Thank God she had Trey. He saved her performance.”

Queen Latifah reminisced about how she tried to repeat the moves of the Jackson Five. She said, “Michael was the biggest star on earth.” On Facebook, people echoed the comment. The event is still going on now, but clearly it’s going to be one of the most watched events on the planet. We’ll find out soon how well the Internet has held up.