WordPress.com – the popular free blog hosting service – went offline today, taking with it popular sites like TechCrunch, GigaOm and 9.2 million other blogs.

The site was down close to two hours. No official announcement has been made on the cause for the outage.

WordPress.com is the 19th most popular site in the world, according to Alexa.

NBC has put out a press release hyping its coverage of the 2010 Olympics.

Some of the highlights:

• They’ve delivered 8.1 million video streams to date;
• They’ve had 13.6 million unique visitors; and
• Traffic to NBCOlympics.com is up 200% over 4 years ago.

That sounds pretty impressive – until you consider that this Fred video, Fred Gets Detention, is more popular than NBC’s Olympic coverage.

Fred Gets Detention has had close to 16 million views – more than NBC’s entire online coverage, so far, of the 2010 Olympics.

NBC – don’t you have a built-in international audience potentially in the billions wanting to see exclusive coverage from an event that only happens every 4 years?

via NewTeeVee

Dan Rayburn has published an interesting, but savage, critique of YouTube over at Business of Video.

In it, he argues that YouTube is stifling innovation and couldn’t survive without Google’s deep pockets:

YouTube didn’t contribute to the technology of the industry at all. They haven’t created any codecs, new delivery protocols, created any industry standards or even lead the pack by adding new functionality.

The only reason YouTube is even around in the market to have the chance to turn a profit is because Google has deep pockets and is willing to lose a lot of money on a long-term bet. Google is giving YouTube the time to be successful and if and when it turns a profit, it will be as a result of Google’s cash and not because of YouTube’s “innovation”.

YouTube is no different than many other sites like Veoh, except for the fact that YouTube is still around  because they are owned by Google. Without that, YouTube would not exist in the market. They could not afford to. I have no problem with YouTube getting the credit for what they have done, but they get far too much credit for what they haven’t done and for technology that they have not developed, created or lead the market with.

Rayburn also rips YouTube for failing to become a platform for vloggers and indie videographers to make money.

Lead Developer Andy Peatling has announced that BuddyPress 1.2, the latest version of the WordPress social networking add-on, is now available.

The release is notable because it works with standard WordPress installs. Previously, it would only work with WordPress MU.

This means that bloggers and podcasters using WordPress can now have a self-hosted solution for creating social neworks, instead of relying on third-party sites like Ning.

Royal Pingdom has released some interesting stats on the users of 19 social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Slashdot, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, FriendFeed, Last.fm, Friendster, LiveJournal, Hi5, Tagged, Ning, Xanga, Classmates.com, & Bebo).

There stats highlight how social networking – which many look at as “something for the kids” – is going a little gray, with the 35-44 year olds making up the largest group.

Average age varies widely by site, with Bebo and Myspace users on the young end, and Classmates & LinkedIn users at the other end:

Other highlights:

• The average social network user is 37 years old.
• LinkedIn, with its business focus, has a predictably high average user age; 44.
• The average Twitter user is 39 years old.
• The average Facebook user is 38 years old.
• The average MySpace user is 31 years old.
• Bebo has by far the youngest users, with an average age of 28.

While social networking is now dominated by middle aged users, older users are not using social networking sites to a large extent. According to Royal Pingdom, “This probably reflects general internet usage, but we suspect the difference is enhanced when it comes to the social media sphere where site usage tends to be more frequent and time-consuming than usual.”

It also represent an opportunity for companies to develop new types of social networking that are more suited to the needs and interests of older Internet users.

This video is a must-see, if you’re involved in new media:

The video is a collaboration between Adobe and Wired and tries to look a year or two into the future and see where magazines are going.

The presentation is not a animated demo – it’s a live demo, built with Adobe InDesign.

Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveils the next generation of Windows Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series – a new multimedia mobile phone platform that promises to be the biggest introduction since the iPhone.

Windows Phone 7 will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone. According to Microsoft, their partners have already started building phones and customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 2010.

“In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences.”

Windows 7 Phone Features:

While the Windows 7 Phone platform will beg comparisons with Apple’s iPhone, Microsoft is doing what it can to try and differentiate its platform.

• Windows 7 Phones will be offered from many vendors.
• Microsoft is making a major feature out of XBox Live games.
• Zune media player and “social” support.
• Mobille Internet Explorer
• Microsoft Office mobile support
• The Star screen features dynamically updated “live tiles”, that show users real-time content directly. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.
• Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides “intent-specific results”, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.

Microsoft is going beyond the idea of a Zune phone and trying to offer an interface and platform that can compete with Apples, but that builds on Microsoft’s strengths, including Microsoft Office and Bing.

YouTube CEO Chad Hurley marked the 5th birthday of the Internet video site today with an official statement at the YouTube blog:

When we registered the YouTube domain on February 14, 2005, we set out to create a place where anyone with a video camera and an Internet connection could share a story with the world. Five years into it, we’re as committed as ever to the core beliefs and principles that guided YouTube’s creation:

Video gives people a voice – From classrooms to war-torn countries, the Queen of England to the King of Pop, the Pope to the President of the United States, and the hillsides of Port au Prince to the streets of Tehran, video has the power to give rise to the most diverse set of faces and voices ever seen or heard in human history.

We succeed when our partners succeed – Our content partners run the gamut, from major Hollywood studios to aspiring filmmakers and vloggers who can turn the ordinary into something extraordinary on the turn of a dime. Content creation isn’t our business; it’s theirs. But breaking open access to media and distribution means delivering the world’s largest global audience and the revenue models they need to succeed, as well as the tools they need to control their content.

Video evolves fast, YouTube must evolve faster – The Internet evolves at break-neck speed. We launch products quickly and constantly iterate to stay one step ahead of it. Our goal? To set the standard in online video delivery. Fast loading, high quality videos need to be able to play on any device, anywhere, anytime. And whether we’re supporting 1080p, 3D, or deploying auto-speech recognition technology, we innovate with an eye toward providing the best possible experience for all of you.

While YouTube’s success is remarkable – what’s just as remarkable is how much about the site, and Internet video in general, is still up in the air:

• Will YouTube ever get its legal battles behind it?
• Will it become a sustainable business?
• Can it hold onto its dominant position as more full-length television content comes to the Web?
• Will there still be a place for indie content and viral hits from leftfield?

At the rate things are moving, it’s starting to look like it may not be YouTube that resolves these questions, but the next big thing.

Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America, and the Democratic National Committee are looking to hire a Social Networks Manager.

The Social Networks Manager will be responsible for maintaining the Democratic Party and Organizing for America accounts on all social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Qualifications:

• Excellent writing and editing skills with strong attention to detail; your writing is strong, sharp, and personable
• Strong organizing and campaigning instincts; you can craft messages that move people to act, and you know what actions will achieve the right impact at the right time
• Strong familiarity with social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.
• Ready to work hard; this isn’t a 9-5 sort of job
• Ability to work under deadline pressure
• Ability to manage multiple complex projects
• Passionate about engaging millions of Americans in advancing President Obama’s agenda and changing the country
• Candidates must be willing to relocate to Washington, DC

Video startup Veoh Networks is dead, reports Media Memo:

Veoh, one of several well-funded startups that have tried and failed to cash in on the Web video boom, is finally calling it quits. The company let go of the remainder of its workforce yesterday, and sources say it plans on filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in the near future.

At launch, Veoh declared it the start of a “new era of Internet television.”

Veoh blew through $70 million in funding, but bet on a proprietary peer-to-peer video client that may have been good technology, but posed a significant barrier to adoption.

As a result, the company ended up having to try and reinvent itself and play catch up to other video sites.

Today, Veoh announced their bankruptcy.