One of the challenges in creating huge hits on the web is the need to scale your technical and staffing infrastructure at a rate quicker than the exploding customer base. One service that is struggling to do this is Twitter, the microblogging sensation that exploded at SXSW last year and has been gaining users at a frenetic pace ever since.

Let’s take a look behind the scenes, courtesy of Twitter’s blog:

I just left the office, at 6am, with most of our engineering and technical operations team. That’s only a handful of people, but we were all there all night.

You may have noticed we had an outage last night/stretching into this morning. This was a planned maintenance project, not a surprise happening for us. But we did go far beyond our planned time window, which sucks. What sucks more is the series of outages (planned and not) we’ve had lately. We know this makes Twitter frustrating to use, and we want you to know, we hear (and share) your frustration and are working really, really hard to fix it.

The good news is we finished a major infrastructure project tonight, which we’ve been working on for months and that we think is going to help a lot.

I love the transparency in this statement. Transparency builds trust and customer loyalty.

A few weeks ago the New York Times home page ran another one of those those Apple vs. Mac ads where the hipster Mac dude smirks as the rather square PC guy attempts to explain away another Windows issue. In this ad the PC guy is shown climbing a ladder and moving from one section of the ad to another to interact with the actual ad copy.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing more ad and content interaction in the future. Like this movie campaign for instance:

Here is another example of ad/content interaction. This is for the movie Jumper. Characters from the movie leap about and interact with the (fake) content from an Australian sports site. Though watch out, it’s only a matter of time before more movie or ad characters start running across your screen and wreaking total havoc.

Visions of Tron.
UPDATE: Here’s another clever use of interactive content - an ad for Jumper within an ad for Hewlett-Packard.
[Via Adfreak.com]

The Tower Records chain store near you closed its doors over a year ago after declaring bankruptcy due to the rise of the iPod and digital downloading. While you may have barely noticed that the old Tower Records you used to frequent is now perhaps a bustling Chipotle, the Hollywood Tower Records carried a tad more cultural cachet than the store at the mall.

It oozed rock and roll and it was cool.

This squat little building on the Sunset Strip was in the eye of the rock and roll hurricane for over three and a half decades. The Hollywood Tower Records store was an icon in a town that considers any building over twenty years of age, well, sort of old (it was built in 1971). Though recently its red and yellow facade, which at one time was plastered with huge advertisements pushing the newest releases, was painted over in the appropriately dour color of blue. According to the LA Times, the building now has a date with the wrecking ball to make room for some new office space. Hollywood preservationists would love to save it and turn it into some kind of museum but it does not look like this is going to happen.

In it’s heyday, Tower’s tiny parking lot hosted innumerable rock concerts: from metal, rap, reggae to rock. Every band on the planet probably did an “in store” record signing within its walls. Even some of its employees went on to bigger things: Axl Rose was once the night manager. If you were ever lucky enough to navigate it’s cramped aisles, there was a good chance you might run into a luminary like Elton John flipping through the racks. Everyone shopped at Tower Records. When it closed its doors in 2006 Alec Baldwin wrote that it was his favorite place to get lost in.

An evening at Tower in West Hollywood was not a stop you made. It WAS the evening. You could hang out there for hours. Cool people worked there. Cool people shopped there. Cool people hung out there with nothing better to do. You could saunter across the street to the video store (some years later) or the classical department. If you wanted a break from the music, you could go to Book Soup. Crowds were gathering at the Whiskey and, later, the Viper Room. You could go eat at Duke’s. Spago was just blasting off down the street. If you were a veggie, you could hit the Source on Sunset. If you had money you could go to Nicky Blair’s. Something for everyone.

Sign-o-the-times.

Ecosol is introducing just what the gadget-heavy travel warrior needs, a means to power up handheld devices on the fly.

According to comments left on Gizmodo, the company is developing a new model that will be solar-powered. The first iteration of this product powers up by connecting to a host computer’s USB port.

In 2006, Quiznos jumped on the user generated content bandwagon as part of a campaign depicting Subway sandwiches as being inferior and with less meat. The company asked consumers to make their own videos showing Quiznos as being better than Subway. The winner received $10,000 and their video was shown on VH1 and in Times Square.

Now, Subway is suing Quiznos and iFilm (where videos were posted), claiming the consumer videos showed its brand in a negative way and made false statements. Such lawsuits in the ad world are nothing new but the user generated content angle adds an interesting twist. Can Quiznos be held liable for content made by consumers? The content was of course produced at Quiznos’ request but the statements were made by consumers.

The outcome could have ramifications on other companies asking for consumer input, according to The New York Times.

The Subway/Quiznos case hinges on how the District Court of Connecticut interprets two federal laws: the Lanham Act, which dates to the 1940s and centers on trademark rights, and the Communications Decency Act, which was passed in 1996 to safeguard the Internet. If Subway wins, advertisers and media companies may find themselves liable for false advertising claims made by consumers who participate in their contests.

The site where these videos originally appeared has been removed but some are still floating around on YouTube.

Moby is at it again. He’s upsetting the apple cart in his favor by offering free soundtrack music to indie film makers.

On his site, MobyGratis.com, the music is free as long as it’s being used in a non-commercial or non-profit film, video, or short. Those seeking commercial use can apply for an easy-to-get license. Moby will then give those proceeds to the Humane Society.

BONUS CLICK: Space Water Onion by Paul Yates

Here are some different recaps and play-by-plays from today’s BlogSav UnCon ‘08:

• Marvin Heery of Xceler8 Concepts
• Andrew Odom of BlogSavannah
• Dizzy Girl
• Frtiz Halle of The Creative Coast
• Scott Larson of Savannah Morning News
• Savannah Red
• Sherry Heyl
• Judson Collier

If you prefer to browse photos, Flickr provides.

[UPDATE] Savannah Morning News is running an article titled “Bloggers mean business” on the front page of their Exchange section this morning.

SAVANNAH—It was good to connect with the Savannah blogging community today at the second annual BlogSav UnCon. There are some interesting people doing interesting things in Georgia’s first city.

One particularly good looking startup here is CityTrex. Phil Sellers, who ran iTour Savannah got together with Burton Sauls, a.k.a. Big Bon Ton, and one other partner (who I have yet to meet) to form CityTrex last year.

CityTrex provides audio tours of Savannah, Charleston and Beaufort in the form of paid podcasts. Their new site, which is still in development, also introduces social media tools–blogs, a message board and profiles pages–to help build a community of travelers with tales to tell.

SAVANNAH—The vlogging world is still in its pioneering stage, John Rife says during his panel at this year’s BlogSavannah Unconference. According to Rife, the vlog world is where the blog world was eight years ago.

Part of the slower expansion has to do with barriers to entry such as having a camera, editing software and editing know-how.

During Rife’s discussion, the question of video rights is raised. Rife says it’s worth it to put your content out there even if you run the risk of seeing it mashed up somewhere else later. We can’t live in walled gardens.

Rife put his content out there last year documenting a trip across the U.S.

SAVANNAH—The BFG content team is assembled at Armstrong Atlantic State University today to soak up the good knowledge at the second annual BlogSavannah UnConference.

An unconference is a gathering where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants.

The proceedings got off to a fun start with this classic bit of YouTube “explanation” as to “the power of Internet” with online “experts” Max and Gabe.