Millions of cubicle dwellers helped set records for Internet traffic in the United States as they watched online video of the presidential inauguration ceremonies — or at least tried to. The overwhelming demand meant that some Web sites and data networks had trouble keeping up, forcing many people to turn to less cutting-edge forms of media.
“It was really frustrating to have this great technology and still not be able to watch the speech,” said Dan Robinson of New York. “I had to use this TV from the early ’80s and some rabbit ears to watch it.”
Internet traffic in the United States hit a record peak at the start of President Barack Obama’s inaugural address as people watched, read about and commented on the ceremonies, according to Bill Woodcock, the research director at the Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit organization that analyzes online traffic. The figures surpassed the previous high on the day Obama was elected.
“The peak is the highest measured to date, and it appears to be mostly a U.S. phenomenon,” Woodcock said, adding that it did not appear that global records would be set.
When people are checking for election results or the score for a big game, they tend to produce smaller bursts of traffic spread out over several hours. With Obama’s presidency starting at 9 a.m. on the West Coast, noon on the East Coast, people wanted to watch video at work or at home. That produced bulky streams of data traveling from media companies.
Data from CNN.com captured the surge. CNN said it had provided more than 21.3 million video streams over a nine-hour span.
That far exceeded the 5.3 million streams provided on Election Day. At its peak, CNN.com fed 1.3 million live streams simultaneously, according to Jennifer Martin, a spokeswoman.
Akamai, which helps companies meet demand for their…