Web Traffic '08

By now you've had your fill of explanations as to why this election was a big deal in historical terms, but as I sat watching CNN on TV with 3 of my Firefox tabs up monitoring CNN.com's election results, my friends' Facebook status', and the Twitter Election stream, I found it a big deal for additional reasons.

As you would expect with each iteration of an election, technology improves. I'm sure that the first radio broadcast election results were remarkable at the time, the same being said for television. The internet brought even more to masses. Yet, this go 'round technology wasn't simply the means it was before.

The first paper, or station, or website to publish "breaking news" was once considered the best. Barack Obama was declared the President elect several seconds after the polls closed on the West coast. You won't ever be able to report more qucikly than in a manner of seconds, putting almost every news organization on an even keel in that regard. Technology has done all it can do as far as useful reporting time goes. The technology in this election was about presentation and interaction.

Regardless of your political views, comparing CNN's election web features to that of FoxNews left you with a clear victor. Information has evolved from spreadsheets and tables with unintelligible numbers and rows upon rows of data to something you can play with. You can click on a map, move a slider, and change a party associated color to satisfy you highest hopes and darkest fears. This is what's drawn so many people to the CNN website. It lets you play God (of Politics).

We've also had Facebook status', digg.com and, recently, twitter abet the "what does he/she think?" curiosity of our culture. Twitter saw record numbers on election night. Tweets came across election.twitter.com in sync if not proceeding what I was watching Live on CNN. I saw once such tweet stating "you broke twitter Obama. Way to go Mr. President-elect". Digg.com recived 35,303 diggs for its "Digg if you voted for Obama" post. Facebook's "Click here if you voted" number topped over 5 million.

These sites all had record traffic on election day because people are fascinated by the ability to get a social pulse on their world. It's hard to imagine what the election of 2012 might bring to the table but the website that best involves the populous will be the one that dominates the traffic. We like being in each other's business far too much for that not to be the case.