Online rush for Jackson news

15 Jun 2005

Online news sites have been swamped by millions of people desperate to find out the verdict in the Michael Jackson trial.

According to Net measurement firm Hitwise, UK searches related to Michael Jackson soared in the last week to more than one in every 9,000 requests.

Both Reuters and the Washington Post used Google Ads to drive Michael Jackson searches to their sites.

The most popular destination for searchers was Google News.

Searching times

CNN, NBC, Reuters, BBC News and ABC News all featured in the top 10 sites.

The official Michael Jackson Website and a flurry of fan sites have also seen traffic soar over the last few days.

The BBC News Website's story, posted as the jury found Mr Jackson not guilty on all counts, saw more than half a million page views in the first few hours of going live.

Despite the intense media furore leading up to the verdict, the Michael Jackson trial was nowhere near the most popular term in cyberspace.

In the four weeks leading up to the trial's conclusion, Michael Jackson ranked 544th in UK searches. Searches for Coldplay, the Make Poverty History campaign, Desperate Housewives and Celebrity Love Island all ranked higher.

The number one most searched-for term in this period was eBay

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