If the Web has a single point of failure, you’d think it was Google, given the outcry over the the outages suffered by some of the company’s services Thursday. Something went wrong this morning and whatever it was had widespread effects on a broad spectrum of Google services–Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, Google News, Blogger, Google Analytics, Google Docs. It outraged Twitter users and provided Microsoft’s (MSFT) Live Search team with no end of amusement. “Sympathies to the Google servers. Happens to everyone. But this is why the world needs more than one search engine,” it quipped in a tweet.

The source of the disruption? A system error that sent a bunch of Google (GOOG) Web traffic to Asia and waylaid about 14 percent of it, apparently.

This just in from the Google Blog:

“Imagine if you were trying to fly from New York to San Francisco, but your plane was routed through an airport in Asia. And a bunch of other planes were sent that way too, so your flight was backed up and your journey took much longer than expected. That’s basically what happened to some of our users today for about an hour, starting at 7:48 am Pacific time.

An error in one of our systems caused us to direct some of our web traffic through Asia, which created a traffic jam. As a result, about 14% of our users experienced slow services or even interruptions. We’ve been working hard to make our services ultrafast and ‘always on,’ so it’s especially embarrassing when a glitch like this one happens. We’re very sorry that it happened, and you can be sure that we’ll be working even harder to make sure that a similar problem won’t happen again. All planes are back on schedule now.”

Just why Microsoft made that determination is unclear. What could have possibly happened to make it not just abandon adCenter Analytics, but to refer clients to rival services, including Google Analytics?

IndexTools “will give our customers tools for monitoring and analyzing Web sites and marketing campaigns, providing valuable insights into key metrics, traffic patterns and performance,” Bassel Ojjeh, head of Yahoo Strategic Data Solutions, wrote in a post to Yahoo Anecdotal. “And that means consumers are more likely to see marketing content that’s engaging and relevant.”

One would hope so. Because at this point, Yahoo doesn’t need to simply distinguish itself from Google (GOOG) Analytics. It needs to catch up to it.

This morning, the company announced a new service that allows publishers to embed ad-supported YouTube videos in their Web sites. The videos will be distributed through Google’s AdSense network and will carry two ad placements: a banner at the top of the video player that can be either text links or a graphical display, and a text link ad at the bottom. Ad revenue will be split between site publishers, video publishers, and Google. The ads themselves, according to Google at least, will be relevant to both video and site content, as well as “unobtrusive.” A win-win service for everyone involved.

“Content distribution on AdSense improves the overall Web experience by connecting consumers with more relevant information and entertainment on the sites they visit,” Google explained. “This new program is a scalable and cost-effective way to distribute content online, creates a new revenue opportunity for publishers and content owners, and helps advertisers reach their target audiences in new and innovative ways. It will also allow AdSense publishers a unique way to enhance their sites with fresh, dynamic content.”

Or gum them up with behemoth video ads fattened with Google Analytics code, something Google would never do to its own famously spartan pages. Remember, text ads save lives, flashy ads take them, as Rough Type’s Nick Carr aptly notes:

I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of how Google used to brag about the way its refusal to serve banner ads was literally saving people’s lives–a claim that earned it some fawning press coverage. Sergey Brin would point to the case where a fellow was in the early stages of a heart attack and went online to find out what he should do. As Fortune Small Business reported:

“ ‘He started using one search engine, but it was too slow because the banner ads were loading, so he switched to Google. After getting the information he needed, he headed to the hospital immediately … “Not only did our search engine save his life, but it shows that these decisions–like whether to use text-based or graphical ads–matter,” says Brin, the co-founder of Google.’

“I don’t think Brin talks about this story so much anymore. While Google has yet to incorporate graphical ads into its search pages, it does serve millions of them up to outside sites through AdSense. I wonder how many people in the throes of a medical emergency have rushed to a health-care information site only to find themselves helplessly waiting for some big animated AdSense ad to load (and, as well, the Google Analytics code to run). Now, these poor souls are also going to have to endure the loading of YouTube videos and their accompanying ads. I can only hope that they’ve kept up with their life insurance premiums.”