Hit Counts

Posted By: Andy_Z

Hit Counts - 04/25/01 03:37 AM

If you think your Web site is busy, have you tried Ellis Island. They had an estimated 25,000 hits per second when they kicked off. They successfully had 8 million hits in 6 hours.

Sorry this is off topic, but this is amazing, both the data and the capabilities. If you haven't been on the site, give it a try.

When someone does something like this, searching bank records should be a piece of virtual cake.

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Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.

Posted By: William J. Ludwig

Re: Hit Counts - 04/26/01 05:58 PM

Andy, See what happens when you spread the word!

From The New York Times

April 26, 2001

Ellis Island Web Site Overwhelmed

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:33 a.m. ET


NEW YORK (AP) -- People searching for information about their ancestral roots have overwhelmed a new Ellis Island Web site that debuted last week.

The site had 26 million visitors in its first 54 hours of operation, and many more were unable to get into the site because of its popularity, said Peg Zitko, a spokeswoman for the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

``The response has just been tremendous,'' Zitko said.

The site, which went online April 18, includes arrival records of 22 million immigrants who entered the port of New York between 1892 to 1924.

``In the first six hours we had 8 million visitors.'' Zitko said. ``Right then we knew we had an instant hit.'' Figures for this week were not available, Zitko said Wednesday.

The largest number of inquiries have come from the United States but there's also been a significant number from other countries, she said.

``We knew it would be popular because 40 percent of Americans can trace their roots back to someone who entered the country at Ellis Island,'' Zitko said, ``but we didn't expect it to be an international phenomenon.'' The site began operating with 10 servers and three backups and had to add 10 more to handle the load.

Zitko said it was the top search term on the Lycos search engine last week, and only the third time in Lycos' history that a new term debuted as No. 1.

The database was put together by the foundation and the Mormon Church, which encourages its members to identify ancestors and baptize them into the faith.

Until now, the information was only available on microfilm at the National Archives in Washington or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Visitors to Ellis Island can also access the information at its American Family Immigration History Center.

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On the Net:
http://www.ellisislandrecords.org

National Park Service site on Ellis Island: http://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: http://www.lds.org

Posted By: Martha O

Re: Hit Counts - 04/27/01 01:26 AM

I've been trying to get on there since the first day....have yet to access the site. What a tremendous amount of WORK that's gone into this. I'm anxious to see if any of my ancestors show up.