Traffic raced around the Internet yesterday, following the announcement of Michael Jackson's death, temporarily slowing down TMZ.com, the LA Times, and many other news sites.

But according to statistics from Akami, a Cambridge, MA technology company whose content delivery platform is used by sites around the world, the amount of traffic hitting news sites yesterday was actually only about half that seen when President Obama was elected last fall.

Yesterday's peak, which Akami's Net Usage Index for News determines by measuring consumption at over 100 news portals worldwide, hit 4.2 million vistiors per minute at around 6:30 p.m. ET. (First chart below.)

When Obama was elected on November 4, 2008, the peak number of visitors hitting news sites was about 8.6 million visitors per minute, around 11 p.m. ET, the time when polls on the West Coast closed and U.S. news organizations began calling the race for Obama.

Also topping yesterday's traffic: the 2006 World Cup, when Ghana eliminated the U.S.; U.S. College Basketball Playoffs in 2006, 2008, and 2009; the Obama Inauguration; and the U.S. Airways flight landing in the Hudson River in January. (See the complete list of traffic toppers in the second chart below and on Akami's Net Usage Index for News.)