A (rather controversial) run-down of social sites that have crashed and burned – and why.

Despite the recent sale of Myspace for a relatively meager $35 million and LinkedIn’s rocky ride so far on the stock market, search engine giant Google has decided it wants a piece of the lucrative social networking pie, and last week launched Google+. Oh, it’s also made a big green announcement that’s gotten lost in all the geeky plus-buzz.

It’s not sporty of us (or anyone) to pick on MySpace, but it’s worth putting its spectacular decline into perspective. And we do so here in a new chart that makes us wonder: will MySpace be around in another six months?

We ask this question after Twitter revealed to the New York Times its latest growth figures in a profile this weekend of co-founder Evan Williams. Twitter has added an impressive 30 million users in the last two months, putting it at 175 million, far ahead of Facebook at the same point in its life cycle.

The global social media landscape continues to shift in surprising ways. Two new Forrester reports show – as expected – a continuing rise in social media usage, but there is no substantial growth in social media-inspired content-creation. Meanwhile, we note another significant (though hardly surprising) development, as Twitter overtakes MySpace in unique visitors.

Social media users are getting older. According to the latest research by Flowtown, the average social media participant is 37-years-old, and the fastest growing demographic is 50-plus. But don’t worry about mom third-wheeling your Facebook page. She is feeling right at home with her favorite social brands.

Tweet
With potential shoppers browsing for tips on the hottest new styles, online clothing retailers are actively trying to boost their social media followers and, naturally, sales. Which online retailers are making the most use of …

We may very well look back on yesterday’s Facebook privacy climb-down as a turning point in the very nature and function of social networks. Bowing to public pressure, the social networking heavyweight will introduce in the coming days new privacy guidelines that could very well lead to a whole lot less sharing of our private photos, videos, status updates and favorite links. And yet for such a landmark policy change, nobody seems to be happy with the changes.

It was halfway through a conference presentation this week by Facebook that is dawned on me just how powerful the social network had become, just how big its own plans are and just how much it now has to lose.

Tweet
Online fashion retailer ASOS is one of the most social savvy of brands. It has over 230,000 followers combined signed up to its Facebook, Bebo and MySpace pages, and nearly 30,000 more tuning in regularly …