Akamai will track usage of Net news

CAMBRIDGE -- Akamai Technologies Inc., which hosts Internet content for other companies, including some of the world's largest online news providers, today is set to introduce a ''Web traffic report" that will offer a real-time look at Internet news consumption globally.

Drawing on data collected from news sites for which Akamai delivers content, from CNN and MSNBC to Reuters and BBC, the new Akamai Net Usage Index for News will track the aggregate number of viewers per minute by geography, identify the times of day when news viewing peaks in different parts of the world, and measure how much above or below the average news viewing is at any given moment.

It could gauge, for example, which stories capture the greatest attention of Web surfers by chronicling traffic spikes on Akamai-hosted sites at the times of specific news events, such as the verdict in the Michael Jackson trial, the bombings in the London underground, or the landing of the space shuttle. Akamai will go live with the index, starting this morning, at www.akamai.com/netusageindex.

The index, available free to consumers, marks a departure for Akamai, which is little known by the general public. While consumers often are the end users for content managed by its global network of Web servers, the company has sold its hosting services exclusively to businesses. Paul Sagan, Akamai's president and chief executive, said the index could raise the company's profile, though Akamai will not seek to profit from it -- at least not initially.

Sagan, a former broadcast journalist and media executive, said Akamai's goal was to contribute to the understanding of the habits and trends of news consumers. ''It's not commercial," he said. ''It's purely because we think it's interesting. . . One of the things you'll be able to see is what kinds of events drive people to turn on their browser to news."

Akamai is scheduled to unveil the news index at a press briefing in New York today after Sagan rings the opening bell at the Nasdaq exchange to celebrate the company's seventh anniversary.

Analysts who were briefed on the index said it was too soon to know how people might act on it. Some said it was likely to be of most use to online journalists and advertisers, who could track viewing patterns emerging over time. Editors and programmers potentially could focus content on topics of consistent interest, they suggested, while advertisers could target their messages in parts of the world, and at times of the day, where news-related Internet traffic was highest.

''It's really a new form of operation for them," said Peter Christy, principal at the Internet Research Group in Los Altos, Calif. ''Akamai has huge internal knowledge of what's going on in the Internet, but until now they've provided very little of that knowledge to the public. If it turns out to be valuable enough to people, they can monetize it."

By establishing itself as an information tracker, rather than simply a deliverer, Akamai could be putting itself in competition with Google Inc., the Internet search giant, Christy said. ''Google's stated mission is to index all the information in the world. What Akamai is saying is 'how about indexing all the information in motion?' "

Joseph Laszlo, broadband research director for Jupiter Research in New York, said a number of search engines, from Google and Yahoo to MSN and Lycos, currently track use of the Internet by search terms, while Internet ratings firms like Nielsen NetRatings and comScore Media Metrix track websites visited by Internet users. But Laszlo said he knew of no one tracking news viewing minute by minute.

''Akamai is trying to do something that's more time-based than the others," Laszlo said. ''There may be commercial opportunities that no one's thought of. The idea of lots of people being online simultaneously at certain times may be of interest to advertisers."

The news index will be limited because, although Akamai manages content delivery for more than 100 online news sites, it will not be able to include data from the many other sites that are not customers. Because of that, its index is more ''a relevant sample," in Sagan's words, than a definitive measure. Akamai plans to update it every minute.

Sagan said his company won't release traffic numbers for specific news sites nor collect data on individual news consumers. ''That really crosses a privacy line that we won't go close to," he said.

If the index proves popular, Akamai could follow up with other indices measuring traffic at e-commerce or business-to-business portals. For now, though, the focus will be exclusively on news.

''People have decided the Internet is how they want to be informed," Sagan said. ''And this is one of the ways I think we're all going to get a better understanding of when are people choosing to get informed and what's driving some of their habits or their interests."

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.