Reported by Colleen Dourney

The report of Michael Jackson’s death continues to impact different people across the world, in very different ways.

Positive Effects

While most people are mourning over the loss of the ‘King of Pop,’ some are looking at the positives.

According to Ian Halperin, author of Unmasked: The Michael Jackson Story, Jackson has over 100 songs recorded that have been held back on their release.

Halperin claims that Jackson purposely held back these songs in order to privately pass on his legacy to his three kids, Prince, 12, Paris Katherine, 11, and Prince Michael II, 7.

Rumors speculate that these songs will be released soon to relieve some of the debt that Jackson was facing.

Internet Effects

When Elvis Presley died, the world was affected after hearing of the news through newspaper, radio, and television announcements.

The news of Jackson’s death, however, spread in a more modern way, through the Internet.

Several news Web sites experienced spiked usage after TMZ.com first broke the news.

Following this release, several Web sites temporarily went down because of the unusually high volumes of visitors.

Twitter and Perez Hilton’s gossip blog were some of the affected sites.

Google believed their site was under attack after the majority of their top 100 searches consisted of items related to Michael Jackson. For 35 minutes, anyone who searched for related content received an error page.

Economic Effects

An increase in sales of Michael Jackson materials is expected to occur through Web sites like eBay and Amazon.

Barron’s magazine is even suggesting that clients should buy stock in these companies.

Many items are already for sale on both Web sites, ranging from Web site domain rights to InMemoryOfKingOfPop.com for $1 million to a Life Mask mannequin of Jackson’s head in the music video for “Thriller” for just under $200.

eBay has announced that they are removing all listings of Michael Jackson concert ticket sales and blocking any future listings.

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