Do you remember when MySpace was all the rage? Of course you do. Then came Facebook; then came Twitter. Something else will come along, too. Unfortunately, though, News Corp. (NWS) committed itself to MySpace by buying it back in 2005. What a mistake that was.

I'm sure everyone knows about the growth problems at the social-networking site. This recent article at Reuters discusses them. Morale at the company appears to be waning. Unique visitors aren't what they used to be. An ad agreement with Google (GOOG) is about to expire; any new transaction on that front may not be as valuable now that MySpace has been relegated to not-as-cool-as-it-used-to-be status.

It's not just Digital Sky Technologies that is in "no rush" for Facebook to go public -- Facebook's founder says he's happy to take his time, too. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to the Wall Street Journal is putting his head together with those of Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel (INTC) and Charles Phillips, president of Oracle (ORCL) to gain insights on running his company, over which he'll have more control as a result of Facebook's dual-class share structure. If Zuckerberg gets his way, he'll run Facebook for a while before taking the dive into public capital markets.

Zuckerberg tells the Wall Street Journal(subscription required), "We're going to go public eventually, because that's the contract that we have with or investors and our employees." Doubtless, these two parties are eager to experience a liquidity event, particularly those from the company's earliest days and preliminary financing rounds.

Last year, Twitter got a taste of significant revenue when it inked data-licensing deals with Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG). The multi-year deals were worth a total of $25 million, but Yahoo! (YHOO) found an alternative way to access the social media site's data – free – which made it seem like the licensed data business model was on the brink of a short life. Well, it looks like some new deals have breathed a bit more life into this approach, though the details remain unclear.

In a blog post Monday, Twitter announced that it was opening its data "Firehose" to a number of companies: Ellerdale, Collecta, Kosmix, Scoopler, twazzup, Crowdeye and Chainn. According to the post, this step makes it "possible to move far beyond the Twitter experiences we know today."

The December 2009 data from comScore (SCOR) were released Tuesday, and the results for the social media sector are nothing short of staggering. Fifty-four percent (112 million) of the 205 million-strong U.S. internet-user population are on Facebook, with 27% (57 million) still using News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace. But according to data from both comScore and Experian Hitwise (EXPN), the most active users were on Tagged, MyYearbook and Orkut. And Facebook users were more active than those on MySpace.

There's no doubt that plenty is happening in the social media space, but there are some facts that just might surprise you, either because of the speed of change or the discovery of players that may not have occurred to you.

You'd think retailers would flock to any place where they could find 400 million people. With the sixth anniversary of Facebook closing in, its robust user base still hasn't opened the eyes of many retailers.

Despite all the Black Friday social media engagement this year, a substantial 75% of the top 100 online retailers don't have a formal presence on Facebook, according to a study by ForeSee Results. Another 25% haven't even hit 10,000 fans.

Has Facebook found its edge on Twitter? The largest social networking site in the world, with more than 400 million users, has struggled to strike a decisive blow against the microblogging service, which surged to a user base of 60 million last year. Despite the large disparity in members, the two have been fighting for ownership of the "status update." The latest data from Facebook, however, shows that it may have an angle for beating Twitter.

According to Facebook-watcher InsideFacebook, 25% of the company's 400 million users access the social media platform from mobile devices, putting it squarely in Twitter's domain. That's 100 million mobile users, putting it up 67% relative to Twitter. The battle for status from mobile devices is where you'd expect to see the fight fought, but the other utilities being accessed from smartphones may ultimately determine the winner.

The Twitter-verse continues to get interesting. I've always felt that the returns are to be found around Twitter rather than with Twitter itself, and the venture capital community seems to be acting from the same position. Twitter interaction platform HootSuite just announced a new round of venture capital funding, with $1.9 million in fresh money coming in the door to support its growth efforts.

HootSuite, which was started by Invoke Media in November 2008, has evolved into a brand monitoring, file-sharing and social media integration utility. Only a year later, it has attracted more than 300,000 users, from Time (TWX) to Martha Stewart to the White House to Aol (AOL).BloggingStocks is among the Aol blogs using HootSuite.

The New York Times (NYT) is putting its 2.3 million followers to work. It isn't ready to start charging a la carte for Twitter advertising, but it is including the channel in the comprehensive packages it presents to advertisers. And, the Times isn't alone. Several media outlets (including BloggingStocks) have ads running through their Twitter streams, but this is still virgin territory, for the most part, and media companies are still feeling their ways through it.

Jack Dorsey is accustomed to dealing in small. In 2006, he co-founded social media sensation Twitter, which traffics in content bites that are no more than 140 characters in length. He left his position as CEO a year ago (and remains chairman) and is now focusing on his newest endeavor: mobile payments. He came up with the idea for his new company, Square, a year ago and hopes it will revolutionize how money is exchanged.

The first product that Square is bringing to market lives up to its name: it's a small cube-shaped credit card terminal that can plug into an iPhone's headset jack. The problem that the device is intended to solve is the swift and easy transaction of credit card payments for anyone. It was inspired by the plight of Dorsey's friend, Jim McKelvey, a glass artist who lost a $2,000 sale because he couldn't accept credit card payments.

It was only a matter of time. This week, social media platforms Twitter and LinkedIn announced new features that will undoubtedly appeal to corporate marketing departments, so Facebook hopped on the bandwagon. Its new preferred developer program is a step toward structuring the Facebook application development and services space, by endorsing providers known to the company.

The program is still in its infancy, which means there isn't much structure around it. According to AllFacebook, "[T]here's really no way to apply to be in the directory aside from being connected with the people over at Facebook." Fourteen vendors are already listed in the directory.

Twitter-watchers have been expecting the company to make some move toward corporate microblogging capabilities for months now. This is one of the two directions that the social media platform has on its agenda for generating revenue, and it is likely the one with the greater potential. The other, serving ads on Twitter.com, is currently constrained by the fact that nearly 70% of Twitter use occurs away from the company's website.

While all talk of corporate accounts is still shrouded in speculation, the obvious plan would be for corporate users to have more robust analytics and other marketing tools for which a premium would be paid. Among the tools being rolled out ostensibly in advance of this business model is a multi-user account model, in which several "Contributors," as Twitter is calling them, can tweet under the same umbrella.

It really didn't take Yahoo! (YHOO) long to pull the trigger. Only a few weeks ago, the perpetual also-ran in the search engine market announced that, like Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG), it would integrate Twitter data into its search capabilities, part of a race among the three companies toward "real-time search." Unlike its competitors, though, Yahoo! didn't shell out a dime for its access to the microblogging service's data, instead using existing developer tools to get what it needs.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that it wasn't in a rush to win in real-time search ... while indicating that it wasn't exactly lagging Google. Both companies have yet to demonstrate a fully integrated Twitter capability. While Yahoo! still has a long way to go, its announcement on Thursday suggests that it has an early lead, despite not having licensed any data from Twitter.

Facebook is implementing a new stock structure to make sure the founders retain control, immediately causing rumors about an impending initial public offering. Why would Facebook need Class A and Class B shares otherwise? Under the new structure, which is similar to Google's (GOOG), Mark Zuckerberg and other early entrants wouldn't have to worry about yielding the floor to outsiders when if the company goes public.

The stock structure was adopted to ensure that existing shareholders keep control on voting issues, according to Facebook statement. No details were given as to who the winners are in this arrangement, but a Wall Street Journal report says that, according to its sources, all current shareholders would be converted to Class B shares, which carry 10 times the voting rights of Class A shares.

Twitter is on the prowl. Though it made its last acquisition more than a year ago, company founder Biz Stone said on Tuesday that it's looking to add to the stable. There aren't any specific targets yet -- at least none revealed -- and Twitter is keeping its options open. The likely pool of potential acquisitions consists of third-party Twitter application developers, which is largely responsible for the micro-blogging service's growth in popularity.

Stone, one of Twitter's founders, said at a Tel Aviv news conference, "As our attention is grabbed by some of these developers, we will take a hard look at them." This refers to companies that develop applications for Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and Research in Motion's (RIMM) Blackberry. It also refers to developers for the Web and desktop, such as HootSuite and TweetDeck.

Once upon a time, Mac users could brag they were much safer from malicious electronic attacks. After all, in the days before Google (GOOG), when Microsoft (MSFT) was the only uber-player in town, Windows was the perpetual malware target. Phishers, however, aren't discriminating; they're just looking for an account to plunge. So, both Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft users are threatened. Virus writers do tend to focus on the Windows operating system, which owns 90% of the OS market, but phishers are platform independent.

Phishing involves attempts to get a user to reveal information about their accounts. Once the soon-to-be victim clicks that link or fills out a form, the "transaction" is complete -- no operating system interaction necessary. As a result, there really isn't any advantage to using a Mac over a PC.