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Urlesque reader Alex Micu wrote in to tell us about Anastasia, the Jack Russel terrier who holds the world record for the fastest time popping 100 balloons. (Video after the jump.)

This got us thinking: are we crazy, or is Guinness starting to open up to more wacky, web-friendly records than before? Could it be that Guinness is now taking cues from web startup Universal Record Database?

I spoke with them both to find out the answer.

Anastasia, owned by Doree Sitterly, set her record of 100 balloons popped in 44.49 seconds back in 2008 during a taping of Regis and Kelly. This video, like many others on the GuinnessWorldRecords YouTube channel, is a clip from a TV show, edited to better suit the web. But Guinness isn't all old media. They enlisted the help of piano-playing Chatroullette hero Merton in this video uploaded last week.

During most of Guinness' existence, they've enjoyed a relatively unchallenged seat as the officiating authority in world record setting, mostly in the form of their books and television appearances. But in the last two years, Dan Rollman's URDB has challenged that position on the web.

I asked Guinness PR Exec Jamie Panas if the URDB had anything to do with how Guinness is changing their game.
The digital environment makes this engagement and content delivery option much easier than it used to be and we're just responding and reacting to that. We tailor our content for the web as we find more and more that this is where a core amount of our audience is.
We cut our content in a variety of formats, and of course web and digital products are to the forefront of our thinking these days. Lots of sites develop content specifically for the web and URDB is also one of them.
Hoping to hear a story about how the underdog is sticking it to the establishment, I met with URDB founder Dan Rollman over coffee to ask his take on Guinness' strategy for adapting to the web. What I got was actually a glowing endorsement for the old-school adjudicators.
I've been a world record fanatic since I got my first Guinness Book at around 10 years old. I was fascinated with becoming a record holder some day. I read those books cover to cover, fascinated by the unique ways in which people could become recognized for being the best in the world at something.

While in college I tried to place a couple of records of my own. In one I tried to impress a girl by setting a ravioli-eating record but failed miserably, and Guinness has since eliminated food consumption records.
Then, while living in San Francisco as a copywriter, some friends brought me out to Burning Man.

The creative community out there really seemed like a petri dish for new ideas. After going for a few years we came up with a theme camp that people could interact with. None of us were DJs or performers, so we decided to do a Burning Man book of records called the Playa Book of Records. At first it was all very loose. We had no visions of it turning into a company. But right from the get-go we loved sharing this creative challenge with people - looking inside themselves, asking what they can be best at.
I mentioned to Dan how Guinness seemed to be stepping up their game on the web, and asked how the competition has been between the two companies.
Last year we had a very gracious and open meeting with them. We have tremendous respect for what Guinness has created. After all, they inspired me to create my own company. What separates us is how we take two different approaches. Their model is more hands-on curation. We're trying to build a tool so that there's a community-driven, totally open platform.
When it comes to what sets them apart, Guinness' Jamie Panas defers to the company's long-standing history as a trusted source.
50 years of experience in chronicling global record breaking. We have been around a long time and are very happy to see people consider us the ultimate authority of record-breaking achievement and have folks like URDB also take an interest in the world of superlatives!
Even if Guinness is starting to get wise about what appeals to viewers online, the URDB is fast gaining a foothold in traditional media. With a URDB Book and a possible NBC series entitled 'That's a Record!' on the way, the two companies are quickly finding themselves competing more directly. But given their different record-placing criteria, there just may be plenty of records to go around.

Bonus: Here's the URDB's top 5 most creative records ever!