Netflix now represents 25% of aggregate North American internet traffic. That’s more than BitTorrent, HTTP or YouTube traffic. {TechCrunch}

While content providers debate how to handle rights to streaming content, the traffic numbers seem to indicate that torrent downloads are the only close alternative (BitTorrent represented approximately 17% of North American traffic). Considering the laws studios are trying to push through to wipe torrent sites off of the web, we’re guessing they’ll choose to play ball with Netflix.

It’s worth noting that due to the sheer size of high definition video files (the kind streamed by Netflix), it’s not hard to eat up lots of bandwidth. So Netflix isn’t really bigger than the entire non-video web just yet, but content consumption is definitely headed in an on-demand direction, meaning the much anticipated shift from TV to the web may finally be gaining steam.

The internet video revolution probably won’t be televised, but it will will probably be available on demand.

Off topic, can we officially crown Reddit as the most best community site going? They may not have 500 million members, but they seem to have an unusually high percentage of awesome people.

Back to the story, the online attention eventually pushed the video over into the mainstream media where numerous television stations broadcast the video and less than 24-hours later offers for Ted Williams started pouring in.

Somewhere bet

ween the video gaining popularity and the media attention, Williams got a haircut and cleaned up a bit and now bears a resemblance to both President Obama and CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

The Cleveland Cavaliers offered Williams a full-time job with housing assistance from Quicken loans, and offers from around (and outside of) the country are pouring in for voice-over work and announcements. On an appearance on the CBS Early Show, he said he’s looking forward to visiting his 92-year-old mother. Williams choked up a bit when explaining that one of his prayers was that she would live long enough to see him rebound.

The Smoking Gun has a list of his rap sheet which includes drug and theft related crimes. Considering Williams honestly admits that he’d struggled with substance abuse, and has been homeless for a decade, it’s not exactly shocking and hopefully won’t derail any of the offers coming in that will help him out with a second chance.

A social network, pop star and socialite top popularity lists. Stop us if you've heard this before.

YouTube, which rose from 7th most visited site in 2009 the 5th most visited in 2010, helps make up the 9.85% of all US internet visits that Google properties claim. While Facebook hasn’t surpassed total Google owned/controlled traffic yet, they aren’t too far off at 8.93%. Yahoo!, often seen as the big engine that couldn’t, still represents 8.12% of all US visits with their various properties including email, which is actually a more popular destination than the Yahoo! homepage.

What surprised us though, is actually the site that traded places with YouTube: MySpace. The site is down off of last year’s 5th place to number 7, but still ranking. Yes, we thought that everyone had abandoned the site with the strange new logo. Frankly, we were pretty sure the people running MySpace were abandoning ship when they seemingly threw in the towel and partnered with Facebook, but it looks like some of you just can’t say goodbye to sparkly glitter gifs and 2001-style clip art.

Speaking of sparkly, glittering things, silver covered magazine mover Kim Kardashian edged out Oprah (who does a pretty good job of moving magazines also) for the title of top searched personality. Rush Limbaugh, Miley Cyrus and Glenn Beck are numbers 3, 4, and 5 respectively. That sounds like the start of a party game where you have to put random words into a sentence that makes sense. We’ll let you know when we come up with one.

Moving on to musicians, butcher calendar girl Lady Gaga dominated searches and beat out the teenage endorsement dream that is Justin Bieber for number one music personality search. Eminem, Taylor Swift and late King of Pop Michael Jackson were 3, 4, and 5 respectively.

H&M’s third-annual Fashion Against AIDS collection, done in partnership with Designers Against AIDS, and new festival-inspired collection (featured here) are slated for release on May 20th. {DAA} In support of the campaign to support AIDS prevention and education, an official launch party will be held to host the first-annual H&M Battle of the Bands contest.

The popularity of music festivals in the summer is outrageous and they are the perfect place to relax, have fun and show off your great style. Bonaroo and Lollapalooza are yearly events that host thousands of attendees for days at a time. H&M has put its own spin on festivals by hosting their own, which will feature the first Battle of the Bands contest. Winners will receive a $200 H&M giftcard, round trip airfare and hotel accommodations to New York City to play live at the H&M Fashion Against AIDS launch party and a custom H&M apparel package. {Nitrolicious}

Katy Perry in a bodycon dress from the upcoming Fashion Against AIDS collection

Previous guest t-shirt designers for the Fashion Against AIDS collections released in 2008 and 2009 include Rhianna, Good Charlotte, Timbaland, Katy Perry, Roisin Murphy, NERD, Tokio Hotel and Cyndi Lauper. {DAA} The 2010 designers haven’t been announced yet, but needless to say you’d be in good company.

If you play in or know of a talented band who should enter here’s how:

1.Upload the video of your band playing to YouTube.

2. Submit name, email and YouTube Video URL here.

3. The ten (10) highest rated bands will move on to a final round on May 8th, where an H&M panel will select the winner! Good Luck!

The Site has introduced a bunch of new features (on top of their forays into live cricket streaming and HTML5 support) AND a new redesign.

First up? Yesterday, the YouTube Music Discovery Project, or “Disco.” Think of it as Pandora Radio with Video – you enter an artist/song, and presto! Or, rather, disco! Up comes your very own playlist that you can save for later.

Today, YouTube made available a new, cleaner version of the Site that viewers can opt into. With less clutter (although the same number of advertisements) and a Like/Thumbs Down icon (instead of those stars), the new YouTube is supposed to make for a more focused viewing experience. What do you think?

Then, starting tomorrow, January 22nd, YouTube will begin renting movies for $3.99 each. Now don’t get too excited – so far, YouTube only has the rights to 5 independent films from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance Film Festivals. The Indies – “The Cove,” “Bass Ackwards,” “One Too Many Mornings,” “Homewrecker” and “Children of Invention” – may not exactly be well-known, but we think it’s pretty cool that they’ll soon have such a wide-reaching platform. Plus, it’s only a matter of time before the major studios follow suit.

Read More {TechCrunch}

Read More {Gizmodo}

The future of fashion is now.

Amid the frilly haystack rumpus at Chanel, the sexed-up Grace Jones warrior at Pugh and Balmain, and the return of laid-back sportswear basics at Stella emerged one more new runway trend: the fashion industry’s full-blown plunge into the world of technology.

Now that we’re [finally] entering the recovery phase after this financially catastrophic past year, perhaps it’s the frenzy to make up for lost time that has turned the concept of social networking into such a lucrative opportunity for designers.  The international reach of platforms like Twitter and Facebook, when paired with the instantaneous nature of blogging, creates a monster of a marketing opportunity for companies when they so desperately need results, and quickly.

As concluded in last month’s “Future of Women’s Fashion” panel in NYC, the fashion industry’s only way forward is to make fashion accessible to more than just a privileged select few.  We hope this booming foray into the internet will provide the push toward democratized, humanistic fashion that we so crave.

Read the full story {NY Times}