Obama Inauguration Breaks Online Records

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration yesterday generated millions of online video views, with CNN.com alone shattering records with 21.3 million live streams around the world.

As at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time yesterday, CNN.com had generated more than 136 million page views, and the CNN.com Live service delivered in excess of 21.3 million video streams around the world, shattering the 5.3 million record set on Election day. Meanwhile, some 7.7 million people watched streaming video of the event on sites with online content players serviced by Akamai Technologies.

The huge interest in yesterday’s inauguration ceremony was difficult for a number of sites to manage, with the wealth of streams said to have slowed down the Internet as a whole.