"On a positive note, I had heard predictions that the Internet would crumble, which didn't happen," White said.

A group of 40 large Web sites that Keynote routinely tracks also saw, on average, a collective slowdown during the swearing-in ceremony and the inaugural address, likely caused by the demand placed on Internet bandwidth by millions of live video streams, White said.

Interest in Tuesday's events was fueled by a combination of factors. President Obama is the country's first African-American president. In addition, he comes into office trailed by widespread hope that he'll fix the country's economic crisis.

This inauguration was the first since online video became a mainstream activity, so it wasn't a surprise that TV networks like CNN and MSNBC, as well as major newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post, provided live broadcasts on their sites.

CNN, which began its Web broadcast at 8 a.m., partnered with Facebook to display "status updates" from members of the social-networking site as they reacted to the events. According to Facebook, by 1:15 p.m., 600,000 status updates had been posted on CNN.com Live, with 8,500 hitting at the minute President Obama began his speech.