Fans flood the internet

- Internet traffic linked to the memorial service was 67% above average, making it the second-largest online traffic peak, according to Akamai Technologies, whose networks process 20% of all traffic on the internet

- Use of news sites almost doubled (from 2 million visitors per minute, the average, to nearly 4 million) while use of online video streaming was up by 471%, Akamai said

- 9.7 million watched the event online at CNN.com, but total online figures are not yet available

- On Twitter, 80,000 messages per hour included the phrase Michael Jackson, while over a million Facebook users fired off 6,000 updates per minute directly linked to CNN’s live feed of the event

- Michael Jackson has 7,453,072 fans on Facebook, and counting (Barack Obama has 6,441,466).

- The virtual Michael Jackson glove has become the most popular gift in the site’s history, as more than 800,000 gloves have been exchanged by Facebook friends

- 6.5 million watched the memorial event on TV in the UK and 31 million in the US. Estimates say at least 1 billion watched worldwide but it is not yet clear whether the figures will beat the 2.5 billion who watched Diana, Princess of Wales’s memorial service

Sources: Akamai Technologies, Facebook, Times database, timesonline