{mosgoogle}The Olympics is here and News.com has a story on how sites are using web tools like video, podcast and blogs to cover the games. Here's a clip:

It's also one of the biggest online events of the year for companies like ESPN, Yahoo and NBC Universal, which has the exclusive broadcast rights in the United States.

NBC Universal spokesman Brian Walker said the company had more than 2,700 people in Turin, working in all capacities. The company's Olympics Web site is aimed at giving TV viewers a deeper look at the games and the athletes, as well as providing them with a way to get near-instant event results, before the delayed TV broadcasts are aired.

"We've learned that people want to get as close to the Games as possible," Walker said in an e-mail interview.

Yahoo's sports division had its highest traffic month during the Athens Summer Olympics in 2004, attracting 14 million viewers, a company representative said. That experience led Yahoo to invest heavily in covering this year's Games, hiring five former Olympic athletes as analysts, as well as drawing on the services of an Associated Press writer who will work exclusively for the online company during the Games.

Read the full story at News.com.