Web sites that share blogs, bookmarks and photos exploded in popularity in 2005, but in recent weeks a number of major outages left users stranded and frustrated.

The new breed of Web site includes blogging services such as TypePad, the photo site Flickr, the shared bookmark site del.icio.us and many others. They are sometimes known collectively as Web 2.0: hosted online, relying heavily on users submissions, and frequently updated and tweaked by their owners.

Their growth in the last year has been huge. Flickr and del.icio.us were high-profile acquisitions for Internet giant Yahoo, and there are now at least 20 million blogs in existence, according to some estimates, with tens of thousands being added every day.

But the surge in Web-based applications has not come without some serious hiccups as several notable services have crashed.

Rapid growth and increased demand places services under pressure, given the market we are in and the need for reliable services the following article reviews the situation as it stands at the moment…Read more courtesy of reuters.com