MySpace returns after power outage

A record-breaking heat wave that crippled power systems throughout California shut down MySpace.com for nearly 12 hours, starting Sunday night.

The popular social-networking site, which recently topped Yahoo Mail as the most-visited Web site in the United States, was disabled entirely as of 6:40 p.m. PDT Sunday.

The home page was replaced by a placeholder with a message from MySpace founder Tom Anderson, who said that the site was dealing with a power outage in its data center. He cited the time as 6:40 p.m. PDT and estimated that MySpace would "hopefully" be back up within the hour. "Wanna place a bet?" Anderson quipped in the note.

As of about 6 a.m. PDT on Monday, the site was back up.

"Due to the record-breaking heat in Los Angeles over the weekend, the area where MySpace's servers are stored had massive power outages," a MySpace spokeswoman said. "The backup generators failed. With power resumed, the network is now up and running."

The outage at West Hollywood, Calif.-based MySpace was just one consequence of the power failures that swept through California after a week of record-breaking temperatures. The Los Angeles Times estimated that 175,000 homes and businesses lost electricity over the weekend in the Los Angeles area. Power outages were also reported in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego.

In order to pacify MySpace users who may be hungry for a procrastination fix, the "site down" notice was accompanied by a Flash game of "Pac-Man."