A couple of days back, the Guardian reported that Youtube had outstripped Myspace as the number one social site, mentioning that since May its reach has surpassed the big Daddy of TV websites the BBC*.

Today the Business 2.0 blogs reports that Youtube has outstripped Cnn.com and links to this Alexa graph.

and in case you think that Alexa’s rankings are not to be trusted, try Hitwise’s.

Youtube is now in pole position not merely to dominate the social site space but to grow out of it to become the premiere global TV distribution platform. Social networks work.

*Full disclosure: I co-founded www.bbc.co.uk in 1997 as commissioning editor.

Julian Smith of Jupiter Research highlights the increasing influence of blogs in a piece for the BBC website in the context of the WeMedia forum. He mentions Market Sentinel’s Dell case study as an example of evidence showing that bloggers can be influential.

“For marketers,” Smith writes, “this has the potential to significantly impact brand communications if consumer content refers to experiences with products or services that are incongruous and misaligned with official marketing messages.

“When a company’s marketing story differs from the one being told by online consumers, a credibility gap will emerge that could have dire consequences on brand perception and favourability. “

The BBC’s Robert Plummer gives Market Sentinel’s report on Dell a mention in his UK blogging survey.