I know, I know, six hours without Ning? It pains us too. But, when we come back up, it will be better than ever.

Some of the things you might notice in this new release:

• A whole new look for Ning and our Ning Apps
• Easier and more interesting ways to browse Social Web Apps on Ning
• The option to see a bit more about the people creating Apps on Ning
• A few new Ning Apps, including Groups and Video Sharing
• Simplified App cloning and set-up with easy ways to choose your colors, customize your headers, and define the fields in your App
• Skeletor Apps pre-populated with web services APIs from eBay, Flickr, Amazon, Google, and Yahoo
• Step-by-Step instructions and screencasts for creating Apps on Ning
• Developer settings for those that want to dive right into the code
• The occasional spelling of “customize” as “customise” (long story involving british dudes)

As I may have mentioned before here before, we’re pretty excited about what’s coming down the pipe. We’ll continue to optimize and tweak this release after it’s out, but the team’s put in a HUGE effort to get to this point and I couldn’t be prouder.

Could there be a better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day?