VentureBeat

Yes, YouTube rocketed to Top 50-site status for the first time last month, and the traffic strain may have had something to do with its outage woes. So everyone was reporting yesterday.

Under reported, though, is that MySpace not only doubled its traffic in July from June, but apparently surged passed YouTube in the process.

ComScore MEdia Metrix reported YouTube had 16 million visitors in July, a 20 percent increase versus June. But MySpace Videos hit 20 million visitors, double its traffic in June.

Big incumbent Yahoo Video has 21.1 million visitors, up 28 percent from June — a growth rate that also exceeds YouTube’s.

Is this just the numbers dance again, or does this represent a blow to YouTube’s claim as hottest video site on the Web? We need to know more. Are some people switching from YouTube to MySpace, a new trend that comes despite the nice growth of new viewers for both sites? Don’t know. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, here are all the reasons YouTube, with its video-only focuses, will remain a contender, and why Google Video will not — at least when it comes to being a node of community buzz.

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