Following the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, which was viewed by 37.8M on television, Nielsen Online released traffic figures for the top 10 most visited Current Events & Global News web sites on Inauguration Day. In addition, Nielsen also reported the fastest growing news sites on January 20th, Web traffic to whitehouse.gov and the most linked-to videos of the day.
CNN Digital Network was the top online Current Events & Global News destination when ranked by unique audience on Inauguration Day, with 11.0 million unique visitors. MSNBC Digital Network and Yahoo! News took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, with 10.0 and 9.1 million unique visitors, respectively.
| Top 10 Current Events & Global News Sites Ranked by Unique Audience on Inauguration Day 2009 (U.S., Home and Work) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| RANK | NAME | Uniques1/13/09 | Uniques1/20/09 | %Growth |
| 1 | CNN Digital Network | 7,840,000 | 11,047,000 | 41 |
| 2 | MSNBC Digital Network | 7,002,000 | 10,006,000 | 43 |
| 3 | Yahoo! News | 8,110,000 | 9,127,000 | 13 |
| 4 | Fox News Digital Network | 3,492,000 | 4,019,000 | 15 |
| 5 | AOL News | 4,331,000 | 3,949,000 | -9 |
| 6 | NYTimes.com | 1,975,000 | 2,442,000 | 24 |
| 7 | Tribune Newspapers | 1,500,000 | 2,344,000 | 56 |
| 8 | ABCNEWS Digital Network | 1,137,000 | 2,260,000 | 99 |
| 9 | Google News | 1,710,000 | 1,843,000 | 8 |
| 10 | washingtonpost.com | 947,000 | 1,711,000 | 81 |
| Source: Nielsen Online, NetView Custom Analysis |
Most Linked-To-Videos on Inauguration Day
Among the top 15 most linked-to-videos globally on Inauguration Day, 11 of them related to President Obama’s inauguration and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
| Top 15 Most Linked-to-Videos on January 20, 2009 | |
|---|---|
| RANK | Video |
| 1 | YouTube – Martin Luther King “I have a dream” |
| 2 | MySpace – Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge |
| 3 | YouTube – Youtube Street Fighter |
| 4 | YouTube – 1/17/09: President-Elect Obama’s Weekly Address |
| 5 | YouTube – Pete Seeger & Bruce Springsteen “This Land is Your Land” at the The Obama Inaugural Celebration Concert |
| 6 | YouTube – 01/10/09: President-Elect Obama’s Weekly Address |
| 7 | YouTube – President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address |
| 8 | YouTube – Gene Robinson’s Prayer Kicks off Inaugural Events |
| 9 | YouTube – Yes We Can – Barack Obama Music Video |
| 10 | YouTube – Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) |
| 11 | YouTube – Barack Obama: Yes We Can |
| 12 | YouTube – Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last speech |
| 13 | YouTube – Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have a Dream |
| 14 | YouTube – joaquin-phoenix-falls-on-stage |
| 15 | YouTube – TMobile advert Liverpool Street Station |
| Source: Nielsen Online, BlogPulse |
