The Net Usage Index provides key statistics for North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and Australia including visitors per minute, peak visitors in the past 24 hours and whether current traffic levels are higher or lower than normal visitor traffic.
This data is gleaned from Akamai's own network, which helps deliver 15 per cent of the Internet's traffic, and the index monitors traffic to 100 major news sites including Reuters, NBC and Le Monde without invading any browsers' privacy. The index also tracks key UK news sites, although the organisations concerned prefer not to publicise their involvement.
"What Akamai hopes is that media and analysts will use this data to identify what is going on in the world when there are spikes in traffic, based on our data," said Akamai spokesperson Jennifer Donovan.
Recent examples of such spikes were caused by the Michael Jackson trial verdict, the London bombings, the NASA shuttle launch and the Indian monsoon, but the data can also uncover more local phenomena. "Last Friday we saw a spike between 3 and 4am Eastern Time, which we believe coincided with a Tokyo-based press conference announcing the signing of a Japanese player to the NHL (to the LA Kings)," explained Ms Donovan.
Akamai hopes to offer "increasing levels of information" as the index evolves, although its data gathering methods - which do not use cookies or keyword scanners - mean that it is difficult to provide information about specific stories that do not cause massive spikes in traffic levels.
However, the index is a useful tool for media organisations that need to ensure their sites can cope with extreme demands, such as in the case of the London tube bombings.
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