Entertainment

By now, you probably know of the death of pop legend and superstar Michael Jackson at the age of 50, following a heart attack. Well, actually, you may not know that the news pretty much broke the Internet, taking down site after site and service after service.

First to go down was AOL-owned TMZ, which actually broke the news. The site has been experiencing several down-times since the story got out. After TMZ went down, people flocked to Perez Hilton’s highly popular celebrity blog, which couldn't handle the traffic either. As people moved on to the LA Times, which at the time was saying that he was only in a coma, the site also went down. Keynote Systems, a company that tracks website performance, reported that, for the 30 news sites the company monitored, their availability went down an average 14 percent, dropping to 86 percent, and the latency of most websites more than doubled. Sites affected include ABC, AOL, CBS, CNN Money, MSNBC, NBC, SF Chronicle, and Yahoo! News.

Google's YouTube and Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, said on Thursday they will launch a premium music video website as they bid to increase revenue from YouTube's huge usage.

The new advertiser-supported site, featuring professional videos, will be called Vevo and is expected to launch in coming months, the companies said.

The deal is a boost for YouTube, which has been under increasing pressure from music labels and publishers who are frustrated that the popular site has been unable to pay higher fees for rights to use their music and videos.