Web traffic high after Janet's stunt

The Washington Post
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
02-14-2004

Web traffic high after Janet's stunt
The Washington Post
Date: 02-14-2004, Saturday
Section: e-LIVING
Edtion: All Editions.=.Two Star B. Two Star P. One Star B

Folks who blinked and missed the Super Bowl "boobgate" incident as it unfolded on live TV flocked afterward to - where else? - the Web for a glimpse of Janet Jackson's exposed breast and sparkly nipple shield.

By Monday, users of the Lycos search engine had conducted enough searches on the singer's stunt for it to tie the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as the site's most-searched-for event. Lycos said searches related to Jackson were 80 times greater than the usual No. 1 Internet search, Britney Spears.

Yahoo reported Jackson broke records on its site, too, accounting for nearly one in five of all queries from Sunday through Wednesday.

If you doubt that folks were hunting for titillating pictures, Lycos noted that traffic didn't rise at most news Web sites Monday after the Super Bowl - except for the Drudge Report (drudgereport.com), which posted images of Jackson after her "wardrobe malfunction." Drudge drew 30 times its usual traffic that Monday. Meantime, the National Football League reported traffic to its official game site - superbowl.com - rose a modest 11 percent Sunday over last year's.

Keywords: INTERNET

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