By Miles Storey

The devoted and the merely curious gathered outside MuchMusic on Queen Street West yesterday—as so many gathered around the world in similar spots—to watch the memorial for Michael Jackson in Los Angeles. One of the biggest television events of the decade, some news organizations compared it to the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997. Many people watched the ceremony online, as well, driving internet traffic up by as much as 33%. But as big a web event as the memorial was—with news organizations coordinating with social media to integrate, for example, streaming video with Facebook updates on CNN—the Barack Obama’s inauguration in January posted bigger numbers.