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Political Sites Scale Up For Election Traffic

miller60 writes "News sites and political blogs are expecting extraordinary traffic tonight as Americans track results of the Presidential election, and are scaling their infrastructure to meet the challenge. Yahoo anticipates its Election Night traffic may be three times the volume seen in 2004, when it had 80 million page views on Election Day and 142 million more visits the following day. Hosting companies say customers have been ordering extra servers and load balancing services, while content delivery networks are also expecting a busy night. Will traffic approach record levels? Akamai's Net Usage Index, which tracks traffic to its customer news sites, is one metric to watch."

9 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. TV Viewership will go down? by xmas2003 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since so many people are checking online, I bet TV viewership goes down - be interesting to compare and see how strong an inverse relationship it ends up being.

    I.e. in the old days, everyone would watch the TV anchors drone on so they could hear a snippet what each particular viewer was interested in. But using pull (instead of push) technology, you can zoom in on what you are interested in much more quickly and efficiently.

    P.S. In the meantime, I'm support the HULK for President! ;-)

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    Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
  2. I just want a bell by MosesJones · · Score: 4, Funny

    All I want is something I can subscribe to that will "ring" when the election gets called. I want to know as soon as its called so I can flip on the TV and watch the acceptance/submission speeches but I don't want to keep polling a website.

    A simple SMS of "Obama has won... Wheeeee" or "Oh Fuck its Palin" would be sufficient.

    Anyone know where I can get it?

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    An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
    1. Re:I just want a bell by internerdj · · Score: 4, Funny

      Do you want it today or after the Florida recount of the recount of the recount or after the resulting lawsuit against Florida is resolved?

    2. Re:I just want a bell by lazyforker · · Score: 4, Funny

      Post your 'phone number on /. - I'm sure one or two people would be willing to send a message when the results are called.

  3. Not Just the US by whencanistop · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To be fair, Yahoo will have to cope with all those people outside the US (yeah, I know - we don't count) who are looking for detailed analysis of the result that they just can't get on TV.

    I don't know why you'd be checking Yahoo! news though. Surely you'd opt for one of the news organisations that has a history of journalism (eg BBC or Reuters).

    Maybe it is just me.

  4. Other neat metrics by Yonkeltron · · Score: 4, Informative

    Also of note for looking at metrics today: http://www.internettrafficreport.com/ http://www.internetpulse.net/

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    Keep the faith, share the code
  5. No kidding by MikeRT · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It took me 2.5 hours to vote this morning. There was a line waiting to vote that was starting to wrap around the entire outside of the school, its parking lot and all the way up inside toward the very back of the school. I've never seen this many people interested in voting, and I live on the outskirts of Northern Virginia (Herndon, to be exact) where we really don't have that many people.

  6. MMOOOOOOAAARRRRRR !!! by ciderVisor · · Score: 5, Funny

    F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 F5

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    Squirrel!
  7. Americans choose none of the above by David+Gerard · · Score: 5, Funny

    BOOTH OF DESPAIR, Ohio, Tuesday - Americans today committed egregious acts of democracy to elect the next failed administration and the next failed Congress.

    In a fabulous upset, almost no-one could bring themselves to vote directly for either of the official candidates, instead opting for a write-in vote. Popular write-ins included "the black guy", "the old guy", "McCain from 2000" and "Tina Fey." The seventeen votes for "The Invisible Man" were tallied for Joe Biden. Several tons of Liquid Paper needed to be scraped off voting machines.

    The winning candidate turned out to be Noneof Theabove, 46, of Dogshit, Nebraska. Apart from the Presidency, Mr Theabove won 72% of Congressional seats and all Senate seats up for election this year.

    Mr Theabove's policies include drinking, shouting abuse at the television and inchoate existential despair. "He completely embodies the national mood," said Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com, just before applying for a new job flipping burgers.

    A majority of US soldiers in Afghanistan stated the place was "just fine, really" and they were learning to speak Pashto rather than returning. Canada looked south and snickered, though not very much as they still had Stephen Harper to cope with. The Kingdom of Mexico stated its "regret" today that it has had to close its borders to American refugees.

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    http://rocknerd.co.uk