Call it the OMpire — as Liz Gannes calls it, in a good-humoured jab at her boss — or the OMniverse, as Susan Mernit dubs it here, Om Malik’s blog dominion continues to increase. And that (as Martha used to say) is a good thing. Some of the fastest and smartest coverage of new media is coming from people like Om, and Rafat and Staci at PaidContent.org (where I noticed Jimmy Guterman’s name show up the other day), as well as Cynthia Brumfield at IPDemocracy.com.

New TeeVee, helmed by Liz with people like Jackson West and Russell Shaw contributing, will focus on anything to do with video online, from startups like Howard Lindzon’s Wallstrip to mega-deals like YouTube, as Om describes here. The GigaOm network now includes the main blog, Web Worker Daily, New TeeVee and the upcoming GigaGamez (a blog about the IP networking business has been taken back to the shop for some tinkering, Om says).

Very smart indeed, as Erick Schonfeld points out. Nice work, Om — although I still think it makes sense for you and Mike Arrington to get hitched. Now go get some sleep.

I’m just throwing this out there — not because I know anything (because I don’t), and not because I have any ulterior motives (I don’t even have any posterior motives), but just because it occurred to me, and the more I thought about it the more it seemed to make sense. I guess I’m posting it here because I want to see if anyone agrees with me. Even if you don’t, feel free to let me know.

I think Mike Arrington should merge his burgeoning global TechCrunch empire with Om Malik’s growing gigaom.com network. Why? Well, the benefits would be obvious, I think — more sites and more readers equals a bigger player when it comes to advertising space, and that’s the name of the game when you’re trying to build what amounts to an online magazine business.

I guess what got me started thinking about it was when I noticed that Mike’s blogs, including TechCrunch and MobileCrunch, linked to Om’s blog when he had a post about something, and Om has done the same thing with Mike — which makes sense, since they cover things that overlap a lot of the time, and they also know each other and are friends. Mike has even given a boost to Om’s Widgets Live conference.

And then I got thinking about how little overlap there really is between the two: Mike does Web 2.0 services and gadgets and that kind of thing, while Om concentrates on telecom and broadband stuff and some mobile coverage. Why not join forces and have something that covers all of those things better than anyone? Then Mike could get closer to his recently-stated wish of having more page views that CNet.

Well, Om managed to keep turning 40 to himself for a little while — apart from an offhand reference here — but you can’t keep secrets for long in Web 2.0 world, especially when you have a big party with all the beautiful people (Mike “TechCrunch” Arrington, Nick “Valleywag” Douglas and others) at Pier 38 in San Francisco. And especially when someone like Thomas Hawk of Zooomr posts a bunch of party snapshots, including one entitled “GigaStud.” Happy 40th Om. And Valleywag’s Nick Douglas has a great job — he not only gets to go to parties, he gets to crack wise about all the people there.