Jackson tribute sparks Facebook frenzy

Here's the (official) word from Facebook's Brandee Barker on how traffic during the Michael Jackson memorial service went at the uber-popular social networking site:

There were a total of about 1 million users posting approximately 800,000 status updates on Facebook related to the live online broadcasts by CNN, E! Online, ABC and MTV of the Michael Jackson memorial service. Here is a breakdown by website:

CNN:
733,000 status updates
759,000 Facebook users viewing broadcast
6,000 updates/minute at the peak

E! Online:
9,000 status updates
87,000 Facebook users viewing broadcast

ABC:
48,000 status updates
97,000 Facebook users viewing broadcast

MTV:
5,000 status updates
21,000 Facebook users viewing broadcast

For context, there were 1.8 million Facebook status updates with the word “Obama” on Inauguration Day in the U.S. – an event that was broadly publicized for months leading up to it.

I'm sure there are social commentators, sociologists and others who'll analyze this in terms of society at large, but I, for one, am struck by the power of social media, something I've written about for The Washington Times before, and probably shall do again.