The King of Pop dominates WORLD'S FRONT PAGES

NEVER before... and if you are reading this, you are part of the statistics of the online frenzy that has captured the world with Michael Jackson's death.

As it dawns on the printing press times in later parts of the world, Michael Jackson dominates the front pages of newspapers like no other in recent times ever has. It's the most shocking death of an entertainment superstar since John Lennon in 1980, with all due respect to the memories of Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, Aaliyah and the many other celebrities who died suddenly.

For the first times in their lives, having not been born at the time of the tragic deaths of the assissinated US President John F. Kennedy, to the the overdose of 'The King' Elvis Presley in 1977, and the insane-fan shooting of John Lennon 29 years ago, the death of Jackson at 50 is a first for the IT-MTV generation. As such many are calling Michael Jackson this generation's Elvis Presley or John Lennon.

And in many ways, the Internet age and the IT revolution has changed the face of global mourning.

Within an hour of his death being confirmed, terms related to Jackson filled nine of the top 10 slots on Google Trends, which tracks the most popular search terms in the US. Top of the list was "Michael died", ahead of "michael jackson dead 2009", "michael jackson heart attack", "cardiac arrest" and "michael jackson cardiac arrest".

Other terms in the list included "la times" and "la times michael jackson" as fans sought out updates from the leading newspaper in the star's home town.

On Twitter, the micro-blogging website, tributes to the King Of Pop pushed "RIP Michael Jackson" and similar phrases up to the top of its trending topics. Their rise came at the expense of tweets connected to the Iranian elections, which have dominated Twitter for the past fortnight.

Hundreds of old pictures surfacing, thousands of new IT-related sites popping up, and millions of people from the furthest corners of this planet all somehow being connected with the man who once sang "Heal the World".

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