Comscore published their annual statistics on the web and according to Techcrunch, one of the most popular items of interest is MySpace vs Facebook.

I’ve been a user of Facebook since 2006, back when it was barely even known (because everyone and their dog was on MySpace) but I’ve noticed 2008 was the year for Facebook. Literally, almost every friend I have in the real world has a Facebook profile page now and almost daily, I get new requests from friends I haven’t seen in years! To me, it seemed obvious Facebook was kicking MySpace to the curb in regards to visitors, but you’d be wrong if you thought Facebook had more hits!

According to Comscore, MySpace had 76 million unique visitors (in the United States) in 2008 while Facebook had only 54.5 million unique US visitors. Facebook’s growth rate, though, is what has people watching – 3.8% each month in 2008 (MySpace’s growth was only 0.8%). So, in essence, Facebook SHOULD beat MySpace in unique visitors by January 2010 according to experts.

Techcrunch had this to say, “even though Facebook is more than 2/3 the size of MySpace in the U.S. today, some key engagement metrics show more activity per user at MySpace. MySpace has almost two times the total time spent (17.5 billion minutes v. 9.3 billion minutes). MySpace generated 40 billion page views in December to Facebook’s 18 billion.”

Although experts say Facebook could overtake MySpace (in the US) before January 2010, it’s safe to say that Facebook is definitely looking like the new champion.

PC Magazine defines social networking sites as a website that provides a virtual community for people interested in a particular subject or just to “hang out” together. In this ever changing and expanding era of social media, I can’t begin to describe the impact that sites like YouTube, Twitter, Pownce, MySpace and Facebook have had on me personally.

In a matter of a couple of months, I’ve been able to build a wonderful community on Twitter that consists of peers, co-workers, friends and acquaintances. No longer are the days where people JUST sit in a chat room and socialize. Just last week, @nealcampbell and @calilewis had a Dallas Twitter social in which I attended. Instantly, I began recognizing people as they walked in the door. It didn’t take long for me to begin thinking “wow, what have we started here?” Check out some of the pictures from our Dallas Twitter hangout here.

Social networking is definitely the future of the web, in my unprofessional opinion. These sites and mediums are no longer just for the geek or just the expert. Anyone and everyone is welcome. If you can’t find a community of similar people on any of these major social networking sites, then you just need to continue looking. I really believe that social networking can be a positive move in the right direction when it comes to lending support (technical, professional, personal) to your fellow neighbor.

So, my awesome blog readers, which social network site is your favorite? I would love to know so please leave a comment below.