As news of Michael Jackson’s death began to spread last Thursday, the crush of people flocking to the Web for information overloaded several Web sites and services, causing AOL’s instant messaging service, news sites, Twitter and Wikipedia to buckle under the strain.

But just how much traffic are we talking about? Compete, a Web analytics firm based in Boston, crunched some numbers and came up with a few data points to help illustrate the surge.

It found that there were 9.98 million queries for the terms “Michael” and “Jackson” across the top 25 search engines and news and social media sites in the week ended June 27. Compete said that was more than 24 times the number of queries for information using the terms “Iran” and “election” during the week before.

Google, which said that its systems initially interpreted the spike in searches as an attack, fielded the most requests, handling 61 percent of the queries.

Click here to read the rest of this story on the New York Times.

X Change 2009, a highly focused web analytics conference for and by real-world practitioners and web analytics managers, today announced the stellar line-up of Huddle Leaders. X Change is a peer-to-peer conference where measurement experts from leading companies host discussions on topics key to their online business.

Building on the success of two previously sold-out conferences, the 2009 X Change will feature recognized experts from diverse online industries ranging from Retail to Financial Services to Media and Publishing. Topics and topic leaders this year include Nokia talking about measuring the mobile Internet, Intuit talking about successful staffing strategies, Charles Schwab talking about data-driven site redesign efforts, Turner Broadcasting talking about measuring online video, Microsoft talking about measuring rich Internet applications, Best Buy talking about measuring social commerce, and Hewlett Packard talking about site testing.

A full list of topics and conversation leaders can be found at http://semphonic.com/XChange.aspx

Gary Angel, President of X Change co-sponsor Semphonic, describes the conference as “laser focused on topics crucial to the web analytics industry. That focus comes from having real practitioners choose the topics and lead the discussions. X Change is committed to delivering an experience different from and more valuable than any conference you’ve ever attended. At X Change, it’s all about the conversation at the table.”

“The X Change keeps getting better and better,” says Eric Peterson, CEO of X Change’s co-sponsor Web Analytics Demystified. “The amazing quality of conversation leaders this year speaks to the opportunity we have created for experienced web analytics professionals.”

X Change will be held on September 9th-11th in San Francisco, California at the luxurious modern St. Regis hotel. The event is an intimate, peer-to-peer experience targeted toward enterprise measurement professionals.

To learn more about the X Change Conference and to reserve your spot, please visit http://www.semphonic.com/conf

Have you checked out Eric Peterson’s latest? Nedstat just announced the publication of ‘The truth about Mobile Analytics’, a white paper authored by Eric T. Peterson of Web Analytics Demystified and co-authored by Michiel Berger, Chief Innovations and Thomas Pottjegort, Senior Technical Consultant at Nedstat.

With the surge of interest among businesses in having a presence on the mobile internet, business owners are facing the urgency of quantifying the value of their investments in this new channel. The white paper examines the central challenges associated with mobile analytics and addresses some of the distractions commonly used to confuse analytics buyers.

“While a number of mobile-specific applications currently exist, adoption of these solutions is largely driven by the vendor’s targeted efforts to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt on the part of the business.” says Eric Peterson. “Our goal is to help site operators set better expectations regarding measurement across the mobile web.”
By outlining the truth about mobile analytics and the opportunity associated with bringing measurements to the “small screen”, the document serves as a guide for companies considering an investment in mobile measurement. It concludes with a list of questions that are appropriate for use in any mobile analytics RFP.

Michiel Berger: “Mobile is just another channel, an extension of the existing web presence to a smaller screen. An analytics solution must support an integrated view of these and show how different channels complement each other. The paper provides transparency in this complex topic helping companies to make the right choice when selecting and implementing a mobile analytics solution.”

The findings of the white paper will be presented by Eric T. Peterson in a correspondent live webcast on June 23 which is free of charge and open to the interested public. For the download of the white paper and registration for the webcast, go to www.nedstat.com/the-truth-about-mobile-analytics.