Creative Capital got ahold of the December 2007 ComScore numbers for the top social networks in the U.S. — and they are, on the whole, not good. Engagement — average minutes spent on the site per visitor — is down for MySpace and Microsoft's Live Spaces, but up for almost all the other sites. Unique visitor growth is ominously low for MySpace and, in the last three months, LinkedIn. Hit the jump to see the numbers for yourself.

Yesterday, we reported that MySpace continues to beat Facebook soundly in traffic. But some, including Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget, reject the U.S. numbers we cited from Hitwise, saying worldwide traffic indicates "Facebook is coming up behind MySpace like a Ferrari about to blow past a bus." And how could we ignore such a simile? It's totally awesome, dude! So here's a chart comparing worldwide traffic for Facebook and MySpace, from ComScore.

You likely haven't heard of Balderton Capital, Benchmark's former affiliate in Europe. But Barry Maloney, a partner at the VC firm, is crowing after the $1 billion sale of MySQL to Sun. Balderton owned a 15 percent stake in MySQL. It owns a similar share of Bebo, the social network which Rupert Murdoch reportedly paid a visit to recently. Bebo denies Murdoch's interest was related to an acquisition. But Bebo's U.K. market share is a coveted prize. Were Bebo to sell, so soon after MySQL's exit, Maloney would have even more reason to brag; he's on Bebo's board.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg may be getting all the money and media attention lately, but News Corp.'s MySpace still dominates when it comes to traffic. The site commands more than 70 percent of visits to social networks, according to this latest chart from Hitwise. Still, its share declined 8 percent in the last year. Which might explain why News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch was rumored to be poking around runner-up social network Bebo recently. Oh, and by the looks of things, maybe Barry Diller should have acquired MyYearbook for IAC back when he reportedly expressed interest.

"I was told that Rupert is actually a friend of one of our execs," Bebo employee and accidental tipster Emma Carlsgaard commented on our post detailing how News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch paid a visit to Bebo. Mmhmm. Just friends, eh? Like what kind? Harry and Sally? Rachel and Ross? Carrie and Big? Hamlet's mom and Hamlet's uncle?

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch recently paid a visit to social network Bebo, according to Bebo employee Emma Carlsgaard, who posted an update to her Bebo profile about the sighting. What's Rupe doing visiting Bebo? A recent rumor suggests acquisition talks.

Social network Bebo, based in San Francisco but bigger overseas, has hired a bank and is looking to sell, a source tells VentureBeat. A Bebo spokesperson, however, says the social network is just looking to get more funding. Judging by Compete's domestic numbers, now might be a good time for the social network to sell. The site has grown over 50 percent since November 2006, but growth has turned flat since the start of fall.

Social network Bebo, which, like Hillary Clinton is more popular in the U.K. than at home, is hosting a breakfast Wednesday morning at the Metreon's second-floor Action Theater for an event at which they promise to announce "news that will impact the developer community and Bebo's 40 million users worldwide." That smells like a platform announcement to me! But, wait, isn't Bebo part of Google's OpenSocial consortium? Coffee, croissants, and controversy. Eminently worth an 8 a.m. wakeup call.

VC blogger Fred Wilson gives Google and Yahoo too much credit: He's taking their "Inbox 2.0" initiatives to turn Gmail and Yahoo Mail into social networks seriously. He 's put together a chart comparing the "social graphs" — we think he means "number of users" — of some popular social networks versus Microsoft's Hotmail and AIM.com. Wilson estimates that Yahoo and Google, which aren't actually on the chart, have about 250 million and 60 million users. Here's the chart.

Bebo, the San Francisco-based social network that's more popular overseas, launched a platform called Open Media today. It allows content owners to publish videos on the site using their own formats and ads. Launch partners include CBS, MTV, ESPN and BBC. Content owner keep all the ad revenue. Users can become "fans" of these content owners, just like they can "fan" brands, bands and celebrities on Facebook. Impressive, but Bebo hasn't fully caught up to Zuckerberg & Co. until it's also illegally forcing users to endorse products.

Yesterday, we showed you charts comparing Facebook to the motley group of also-ran social networks Google roped together as a part of the initiative. Not impressive. But then news came that MySpace and Bebo had joined the initiative. Now Facebook was really in trouble, right? Not quite.

Google's getting all the credit for reaching around the Risk board and ganging up on Facebook. But, even though you've never heard of them, check out Bebo's sneaky moves. The social network, which is big in the U.K. and unknown in the U.S., seems to be playing both sides.

Google's gang of also-ran social networks had their day in the sun. But then we rained on it with our charts, which showed that even in aggregate, without MySpace, the Google gang didn't amount to much in the U.S. Some of you protested. Well here's the good news. Today, the chart looks much better for the Google Gang versus Facebook. The bad news? Well, we may have rained on your day in the sun but you ... who are you again? Here's how the chart looks when Hitwise included some social networks you may have actually heard of, like Bebo and MySpace, Google's new OpenSocial partners.

Just as we predicted, MySpace has joined Google's OpenSocial movement. Another name to add to the anti-Facebook list? UK-heavy network Bebo. Now, at last, Google's open-standards initiative looks more substantive. For Google's also-ran early adopters, though, there's still a problem: They won't be able to tap into MySpace and Bebo's users to spread their apps virally.

Earlier, we scoffed at the idea that Facebook's traffic could have dropped in September. Compete.com — the poor man's ComScore, which makes its traffic data publicly available — just released September data that shows a similar drop. Maybe Facebook has peaked. More likely: since the kids returned to college, the free time they had to screw around on Facebook this summer has disappeared in favor of schoolwork and frat parties. MySpace, Orkut and Bebo were all down in September too. Amid the hysteria about Facebook's traffic dropping, everyone seems to have forgotten that Facebook traffic was down last September as well.

British Internet users spend 11 minutes a day on social networks. Want something more interesting than that? Nielsen/NetRatings thinks Facebook is the top social net in the U.K. ComScore says they're No. 3 behind MySpace and Bebo. Either way, we're glad they didn't poll the Valley — based on an informal survey of our peers, we probably waste three hours a day on Facebook. [Times Online]

We hear Facebook is hiring a stock administration manager, preferably one with an experience at an "international public company." Not that Facebook's planning to go public or anything crazy like that. If that doesn't float your boat, Facebook rival Bebo is hiring. For other new gigs, check out these listings from Valleywag Jobs:

Three of today's stories provide a perfect lesson in recognizing a bubble. The astute reader will recognize the common themes.