Web 2.0 marriage and divorce...

MSN has just published a heart warming story of web 2.0 love. When Bernie Peng, a financial software programmer from New Jersey, decided to ask his girlfriend to marry him, he popped the question in a rather unique way.

Bernie reprogrammed his girlfriend Tammy Li's favourite video game, 'Bejeweled', to ask for her hand in marriage when she reached a certain score. When Tammy reached this target, a ring and a marriage proposal appeared on screen. Wooed by this romantic, but uniquely nerdy, proposal Tammy Li said yes.

Peng posted the good news on his blog, along with details of what he had done. The news filtered out, and now PopCap games, the company behind Bejeweled, will fly the couple to Seattle as part of their honeymoon. In addition, the company is supplying copies of the game to hand out to wedding guests. PopCap claimed that, while most games companies would disapprove of manipulating their code, it didn't mind in this case. "It won him a woman. As a bunch of geeks we have to say, 'Bernie, hats off to you,'" said a spokesman.

Conversely YouTube is becoming the next battleground for divorce cases! A YouTube video, in which one Tricia Walsh-Smith angrily explains the details of her upcoming divorce, has been spreading around the Internet. The Register reports that the video is worrying lawyers, who have described Walsh-Smith's video diatribe as a "scary new step" in acrimonious divorces.

It really is the kind of thing you have to see to believe, as captions such as 'Nasty, Evil Stepdaughter', 'Mean, Bad Husband, and 'Poor Vulnerable Tricia' pop up on screen. Walsh-Smith's lawyer claims that she was acting out of passion, and that she is a "victim who is holding her head up".

Her husband's lawyers say that they are "kind of appalled", and other divorce specialists believe that the footage is unlikely to be well received by the judge. It's quite easy to see why.