Just as shoppers crowded the malls on Black Friday, eager bargain-hunters clogged Web sites of major online retailers at the start of the key holiday shopping season, with both Walmart.com and Amazon.com reporting temporary snafus.
    Wal-mart said that a higher-than-anticipated surge in traffic caused “an issue with site availability” early Friday morning.
    But the world’s largest retailer said that Friday-only specials scheduled to end at 11 a.m. would be extended through midnight to accommodate shoppers who weren’t able to access the deals earlier.
    At Amazon, it took a mere 29 seconds on Thanksgiving to sell a limited supply of 1,000 Xbox 360 Core Systems that were heavily discounted at $100. But the popular promotion, which spurred “drastically” higher-than-expected traffic, had its down side.
    “That did cause a degradation in page load times that started before 11 a.m. and lasted for about 15 minutes,” said Amazon spokesman Craig Berman.
    Even the magical world of Disney had problems. The Disneyshopping.com Web site has had sporatic problems all Friday, according to spokesman Gary Foster.
    But specials advertised on the site had already been slated to run through Sunday, he said.
    The moral of this story? Sometimes it’s easier to brave the crowds and hit the mall after all.