Search API Causing Timeout

Hi there,

I'm not sure if this is a problem occuring with anyone else, but since the recent change of the affiliates program, we have come across a few issues that points towards what I believe to be the Search API.

When we query the search API between 8AM (PST) until around 12PM (PST), any page which runs a query through the Search API takes a very long time to load and then causes the page to timeout. Even when I type in the query URL directly (http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=xxx), it takes quite awhile to load the output page too.

Has there been a recent change that could be causing this or what as this problem was not there until recently.