In a throwaway line in an interview the other day, Rupert Murdoch let slip a worry about MySpace, the online social networking site owned by his News Corp. Aren't newspaper readers drifting off to MySpace? he was asked by the Wall Street Journal. "I wish they were. They're all going to Facebook at the moment," he replied.

Mr Murdoch was reflecting a common feeling in the febrile world of online social networking. Even a year ago, MySpace's dizzying growth and popularity among young people had turned it into a social phenomenon. Business Week talked of the MySpace Generation - youngsters who exchanged messages, shared photos and lived virtual lives on the site.