A deluge of search queries for Michael Jackson led Google News, the news aggregator of Web search engine Google, to initially believe it was under attack, the Internet giant said.     

Also Read   Related Stories News Now - Police to question Jackson's cardiologist - Transcript of emergency call from Jackson's home - Coroner rules out foul play in Jackson death - Far from invincible - Prescription drugs killed Jackson: family lawyer - Jackson had long history of health problems   Also Read   Related Stories News Now - Sensex makes remarkable recovery, regains 17K - L N Mittal doubles his stake in Ophir Energy - Indian handicraft firms to participate in Munich fair - Microsoft eyes Indian smartphone mkt - RIL Hazira unit bags 'Excellent Energy Efficient Unit Award' More

Google, in a blog post on the company website, said that "millions and millions" of people around the world begin searching for news about the pop star on Thursday as reports emerged about his hospitalisation and death.     

It rated the "hotness" of Jackson-related searches as "volcanic."     

"The spike in searches related to Michael Jackson was so big that Google News initially mistook it for an automated attack," Google said yesterday.     

"As a result, for about 25 minutes yesterday, when some people searched Google News they saw a 'We're sorry' page before finding the articles they were looking for," it said.     

The "We're sorry" page tells users their query "looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application" and forces them to type in a series of squiggly characters before it will process their request.     

Popular micro-blogging service Twitter also suffered a slowdown in performance on Thursday as users exchanged thousands of messages per minute about Jackson's death at the age of 50.     

Web portal AOL said its AIM instant messaging service was down for about 40 minutes.     

Yahoo! said the news area on its front page received five times its normal traffic.

Other Stories      - Sensex makes remarkable recovery, regains 17K - L N Mittal doubles his stake in Ophir Energy - Indian handicraft firms to participate in Munich fair - Microsoft eyes Indian smartphone mkt - RIL Hazira unit bags 'Excellent Energy Efficient Unit Award' More

Tags : Michael Jackson | Google News | Internet | Twitter   Read Business news in  Advertisements   Get financial advisory and solutions for your projects   Holidays starting at a delightful EMI of Rs 3481   Switch on and say hello to Monday morning !   Your dream home can now be a reality.   Visit Fortis for a preventive health check-up & get a 20% discount.   Follow the ups and downs of your investments. Try our new Portfolio Tracker   Kolkata Dock \ Freight contract for the British Gurkhas Nepal   Find how Midsize Businesses use ERP to gain competitive advantage   Trading in Forex is now as easy as 1-2-3   Discover an economical and cost effective way to market your products and services   Giftwithlove.com: Same day delivery of Flowers and Cakes to India   Download the E-book on the Future of Business Intelligence   Learn Best Practices for improving customer satisfaction   Know your customers better... download the free e-book on CRM