One of the analysts for online traffic metrics firm Compete has posted on the Compete blog about the effect that Amazon.com's Thanksgiving day Xbox 360 special had on generating online interest in Microsoft's next-gen console.

As you may have heard, in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving Amazon held a public vote to determine their next big sales. As it turns out, the core system for the Xbox 360 received the most votes and therefore was marked down to just $100—that's 66 percent off the standard $299.99 price. The deal was so successful for Amazon that it actually took the leading online retailer a bit by surprise, and the website was nearly impossible to navigate for several minutes. After just a few minutes, all 1,000 units of the 360 had been sold out.

Compete's Max Freiert commented, "On a pure traffic volume basis, the 360 generated more online interest on the 23rd, than either the PlayStation 3 or Wii commanded on their respective launch days, making one thing clear -- the Amazon promotion was the Xbox 360's Launch 2.0."

Compete provided this handy chart showing console demand from October through most of November.

As you can see, the 360 has exhibited similar demand with the Wii, almost keeping pace with Nintendo's new console. Meanwhile, although demand for the PlayStation 3 was quite high right around launch, the Sony console saw demand drop close to 15 percent in the week following.

"All in all, the $100 Xbox promotion on Amazon yielded a lot of interest in the 360 on the busiest shopping weekend of the year, and that Microsoft (with Amazon's help) has sent a powerful message to would-be Wii and PS3 buyers: the 'on' button is always greener on a system that you can actually buy in time for the holidays," added Freiert. [emphasis added by Freiert]

For more, check out the Compete blog linked above.