Those long months of seemingly endless political posturing and campaigning is now finally drawing to a close with Election Day upon us. But with the 2008 Presidential Election a close fight and of worldwide interest, and with the Internet offering more ways to follow the results than ever, could the race for the White House break the Web?

I’m a British citizen and therefore won’t be actively taking part in the U.S. Presidential Election. But I wish I could, because unlike any American election before, I’ve found myself completely caught up and interested in what’s happening. And I don’t think I’m alone in being a non-American who is intrigued with who’ll become the next President.

Maybe it’s because we’re on the verge of history, with Barack Obama possibly about to become the first ever black President of the United States, or maybe it’s more about the fact that America is now the empire-builder in the world, and so what happens there affects us all.

With this in mind, I think Nov. 4 and 5 will find many millions of people all around the world using the Internet to keep track of the election results as they come in. That’s on top of the millions of Americans who themselves will turn to the Web more than ever to not only watch the results but then give their opinion on it.

Whether by way of uploading a video to YouTube, posting an update on Twitter or Facebook, or writing a blog post detailing your feelings on the result, Internet traffic is likely to be up over the next few days at least. All of which could result in a bit of a logjam.

Then there are the new mediums which have emerged since the last election, with video commenting and old television offering Web video coverage which is bound to slow the tubes of the Interweb down considerably.

The New York Times reports how Yahoo News is gearing up for the Election, with the campaign build-up already having prompted the highest traffic day in the 13-year history of the site. The last election saw the site manage 80 million page views on polling day and 142 million the following day. Those figures are likely to be massively beaten this time around.

Related:

Entry was posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 9:21 pm under Internet, Opinion, Politics, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
Stumble It!