As the largest day ever for the delivery of concurrent live streaming over the Akamai network, the company reported it reached a peak of over 7 million active simultaneous streams (the majority live streams) at around 12:15 p.m. today.

Total traffic on the network surpassed a rate of more than 2 terabits per second and the company also delivered over 12,000,000 requests per second at the same time.

"In addition to the historic nature of the Inauguration, it is now clear that this event has driven unprecedented demand from a global online audience," said Robert Hughes, executive vice president of Global Sales, Services, and Marketing at Akamai.

"With the Inauguration occurring during work-day hours in the U.S., we witnessed record numbers of live streams served in support of many leading news businesses. While this event was supported flawlessly for our broadcast customers, it is also important to point out that Akamai continued to deliver perfect quality of service for the remainder of our 2,800 enterprise customers. This is just the beginning of what is possible when broadcasting live to audiences around the world."

Akamai said its Net Usage Index for News also saw a significant traffic peak today. The index indicated that at about 11:45 a.m. there were over 5.4 million visitors per minute looking for news online.
 

The first one is "Your View of History" from CNN. It maps "iReports," and features CNN photos and videos. It will be updated throughout the day. CNN also has one for Obama’s "Whistle Stop" Train Tour.

Next is a mashup from Oprah.com, featuring on-the-scene updates from Washington D.C. "Oprah’s producers and journalist Lisa Ling are in D.C. to meet people and visit the inauguration hotspots," explains Michael Pegg at the Google Lat Long Blog. "They have made use of Google Maps to plot their adventures and map streaming videos from their interviews with the big celebs and ordinary folks alike. Click "Start watching exclusive, around-the-clock videos from Washington, D.C.!" to launch the Google Maps view."

WashingtonPost.com has one called "TimeSpace: Inauguration" that will geocode real-time photos, videos and blog posts from over 30 photographers and videographers and over 40 reporters.

And finally, the Wall Street Journal has one called "The Journal Guide to the Obama Inauguration" that showcases a guide to events and other things around the area.

If you need some more places to watch Inauguration coverage, you can find them here. On another Inauguration note, there are no special logos from Google or Yahoo.

Of course Hulu has it covered, and has even gone so far as to provide an embeddable countdown:

Other destinations that will have coverage in one form or another include: Joost, Comcast.net, ABCNews, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Livestation, USAToday, NYT, and Terra. It can be watched via mobile devices with Verizon V Cast, AT&T Mobile TV or MobiTV, and the iPhone Ustream application (thanks Om Malik for providing a list).

CNN is also partnering up with Facebook. "What will your Facebook status say when Obama becomes President? CNN.com and Facebook are partnering to enable you to update your status, and follow your friends’ updates, while you watch the inauguration live online, all on http://cnn.com/live," reads an event description on the social network. Twitter’s got a thing too.

Google has taken it upon itself to share some helpful maps that may be of use if you are actually in or on your way to D.C. They talk about those in this post at the Google Lat Long Blog.

Speaking of Google, Matt Cutts will be attending the inauguration. He’s already in D.C. and while I have not seen any promises from him to provide his own coverage of the event, I would not be surprised to see something come from him.

It will be a historic day on a number of levels, and you can add this continuation of the technology used throughout Obama’s entire campaign to the list. Please feel free to share other sources of Inauguration-related content in the comments.

"For months, wireless carriers have been working hard to prepare for what could be an unprecedented Inauguration week," said Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA-The Wireless Association.

Steve Largent
President & CEO
CTIA

"Companies are going to extraordinary lengths investing significant amounts of time and money, and are doing everything within their power to boost network capacities in Washington, D.C. for this historic event."

To prepare for the crowds and huge spikes in wireless traffic, carriers are adding more technicians to monitor their networks and work with government agencies involved in the Inauguration events.

They are also taking steps to address capacity issues, including adding new radio channels to augment existing cell sites, provisioning additional portable sites and enhancing in – building wireless coverage at key locations throughout Washington, D.C.

"Despite all the industry’s efforts to increase network capacity, it’s really important for the public to understand that unusually large crowds can generate congestion and communications delays," Largent continued.  "Think of a wireless network like a highway.  Even though we’re building more lanes, if millions of people jump on the road at the same time, there could be a traffic jam."

"For this reason, we want to remind Inaugural event attendees to do their part in decreasing network demand by texting instead of placing voice calls, and holding off on sending cell phone pictures or video until after the events are over."  

Of the 1.4 million spam emails analyzed by SPAMfighter in December, Michelle Obama was the subject nearly five times as much as Britney Spears was, nearly six times as often as Paris Hilton, and ten times as much as Angelina Jolie.

Maybe spammers are making use of free online measurement tools like Google Trends to map out current spikes in interest. A Google Trends analysis shows Obama beating the former queens of the Internet lately as well.

“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” said SPAMfighter cofounder and CMO Martin Thorburg. “As the big inauguration day nears, it’s likely we’ll see an even bigger increase in Obama related spam. E-mail users can beat spammers to the punch, however they must be vigilant.
 

“E-mail users should get their Michelle Obama and celebrity gossip fix from trusted blogs and Web sites rather than risk opening unsolicited e-mails. By clicking on spam, users identify their e-mails as a working address and it is then sold off to more spammers resulting in even more spam. It’s important that we work together to help eliminate spam.”
  
 

"A lot of people will be participating in the upcoming inauguration, whether they are planning to attend or host a party at home," said Craig Berman, director of communications for Amazon.com.

"We want to make it as easy as possible for customers to prepare for the historic event."

The Inauguration Store features a countdown to the event in the upper right hand corner of the page.

Products include digital recorders, cameras, camcorders, Washington D.C. travel guides and winter clothing.

It also features Barack Obama memorabilia including an Obama tie, a Barack and Roll T-shirt, and an audio book "The Essential Barack Obama."

General political items include star and stripes boxer shorts, a velvet Uncle Sam Top Hat and a red, white and blue crystal American flag heart pin.
 

eBay reached the decision after meeting with officials from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), head of the committee said earlier this week she was writing both eBay and Craigslist asking the Web sites not to sell any inauguration tickets.

Tickets to the inauguration are supposed to be free but have been showing up on some sites for as much as $40,000. The public can contact their Member of Congress or U.S. Senators to request tickets to the event.

Tickets will not be handed out to congressional offices until the week before the inauguration and will require in-person pick-up.

"Any website or ticket broker claiming that they have inaugural tickets is simply not telling the truth," said Howard Gantman, Staff Director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

"Tickets for the swearing-in of President-elect are all provided through members of Congress, and the President-elect and Vice President-elect through the Presidential Inaugural Committee. We urge the public to view any offers of tickets for sale with great skepticism."
 

Feinstein is also writing to eBay and Craigslist asking the Web sites not to sell any scalped inauguration tickets.

Feinstein’s bill would charge those caught selling the tickets with a misdemeanor and a fine.  The Senate meets next week for a lame-duck session where the bill could be introduced.

Tickets to the inauguration are available for free but have been appearing on some sites for as much as $40,000. The public can contact their Member of Congress or U.S Senators to request tickets to the January 20 event.

Tickets to the inauguration will not be distributed to congressional offices until the week before the ceremony and will require in-person pick-up.

"Any website or ticket broker claiming that they have inaugural tickets is simply not telling the truth," said Howard Gantman, Staff Director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

"Tickets for the swearing-in of President-elect are all provided through members of Congress, and the President-elect and Vice President-elect through the Presidential Inaugural Committee. We urge the public to view any offers of tickets for sale with great skepticism."