Dave Morris NewsOK.com Blogging Community

First of all, you may have experienced problems getting NewsOK to load this week. You won't be surprised the Mike Gundy-Jenni Carlson situation is the reason. We've had serious traffic from people everywhere.

Let's break it down:

The top referring Web site to NewsOK is ESPN.com. CBS Sportsline and CNN SI are also in the top five.

Yesterday was the highest trafficked day in NewsOK history. Today will top that before 5 p.m.

Users from 152 countries have visited NewsOK this week, including one each from Fiji and Paraguay. Allow me to personally say thank you to both of you. We love you.

The top viewed video on NewsOK was Jenni Carlson responding for the first time on camera to Mike Gundy's press conference. We thank Jenni and Mike Sherman for their time.

But the real thanks goes to you the user. Thank you for visiting NewsOK and sharing your comments and dialogue. Keep it clean, but keep it coming.

The Oklahoman's columnist Jenni Carlson and sports editor Mike Sherman went to Stillwater today for the Oklahoma State football press conference. Both spoke with Mike Gundy, who blasted Carlson on Saturday for her column.

So we asked Carlson and Sherman to go on camera at NewsOK.tv before other media.

Check it out. And we posted it on YouTube, which is something we don't usually - but should - do.

Let's get to it. It's all the news today. All over the Internet. No, I'm not talking about Mike Gundy. It's the release of Halo 3. And it happens tonight just after midnight. For those of you laughing about a video game, consider this. 10,000 U.S. retailers will open their doors tonight to sell it. The billion-dollar Halo franchise expects to sell 4 million units of Halo 3... in the first two months!

But enough fun and games. Let's get to it. The Mike Gundy video on NewsOK has been the top viewed video on the site. And we offer two camera angles, two flavors if you will: the News9 video and The Oklahoman's video, captured by Darnell Mayberry.

Jenni Carlson's blog has a couple hundred comments. And her column - which sparked Gundy's post game comments - is quickly becoming the most trafficked story in NewsOK history.

Let me say this: NewsOK is all about hosting the conversation. Watch the video, read the columns - including Berry Tramel's column today. And let us know your thoughts.

And maybe go buy a video game tonight. More to come. Catch you later.

Google continues to go after Microsoft. This time Google has created its own PowerPoint. You may have already noticed. For those of you who use Google Docs, when you select "NEW" there is now something called Presentations. Google Presentations is the G version of PowerPoint. It's all free, just go to google.com and sign up. Works pretty well too.

TMZ.com is letting its users vent. Readers can post audio comments about items on the Hollywood gossip site. Other users can then listen. TMZ.com, which stands for Hollywood's 30 mile zone, is the No. 1 most-visited entertainment site. It is also planning to let readers post videotaped comments. It's all the rage for user interaction. The New York Times just published its first videotaped letter to the editor. Meanwhile the San Francisco Chronicle is posting readers' voice-mail messages.

But, here's the story of the day. Straight outta Pittsburgh. Happy birthday SMILEY FACE! Who knew? And who keeps track of this stuff anyway? Get this: Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman claims he was the first to use three keystrokes — a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis — as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message. No one really knows whether he's the first or not. But that's not stopping Yahoo from presenting the Smiley Award, an annual student contest worth $500.

Angi and I hit the Oklahoma State Fair on Monday over lunch. We had two goals: 1) shoot something with Horseshow Road, the act at the OPUBCO Pavillion during the Fair, and 2) track down one of our honorees for the Oklahoman Spirit Award. More on Cheri White Owl in a future post.

Kyle Roberts and Paige Lessly accompanied us to the fair. Ryan Free, Events Manager for OPUBCO, set us up with accesses and the interview.

I've seen HR play at various events - from the Taste of Bricktown to the OKC Arts Spectacular. Over the 11 days of the fair, they are playing 32 sets, 3 a day. That's exhausting. But they are talented and here's more of them:

The Spiderman rape case has never been solved.

I have some questions.

Do you know what the world's tallest building is? It's now the Dubai Tower. It's over 1,822 feet. And climbing. The final height is a closely guarded secret, but completion of the concrete, glass and steel structure is expected by the end of 2008. Did you know there are four criteria for world's tallest building: the height of the structural top, the highest occupied floor, the top of the roof, and the tip of the spire, pinnacle, antenna, mast or flag pole.

Do you know this girl? I bet you do. USA Today reports TBS is bringing in actress Alyssa Milano to be your online guide during the baseball playoffs. She will have a continual presence on TBS' Hot Corner on mlb.com. Milano's first Hot Corner report will appear Monday. She told the USA Today — "I learned how to rub baseballs with the mud."

Speaking of... video. Do you know how long most people spend watching video online? According to comscore’s recent numbers, U.S. viewers watched an average of 3 hours of video online during July. Google commanded 27 percent of that audience. My friends at TheLostRemote.com note the average length of the videos watched is 2.7 minutes. Thanks Ed.

OK, in order to stretch this video to 2.7 minutes... Do you know the most valuable sports franchise in the world? It's the Dallas Cowboys according to Forbes magazine. The Cowboys are tops with a value of $1.5 billion, thanks to their new stadium.

So there you go. A wealth of knowledge.

I blogged about our High School Huddle efforts a couple weeks ago. We're about to tape our third episode tomorrow.

The Oklahoman's Ryan Aber has done a really nice job of filling in the blanks. He's good on camera, comes prepared and we typically knock out the segment in less than 30 minutes. Sometimes the set-up is the hardest part, people!

Here are segments one and two... Good studio set-up by Tanner Herriott. Good editing by Kyle Roberts. That Dave should work on his performance, though...