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MySpace is looking to do an about-face. The once-red-hot social networking site acquired three years ago by septuagenarian mogul Rupert Murdoch, which landed him on the cover of Wired magazine and won News Corp. praise for embracing the Internet ahead of its old-media rivals, has cooled considerably. New statistics released this week show MySpace has been surpassed by rival Facebook in the U.S. market, where it once dominated, and ad revenue for the site is projected to decline.

Facebook Inc., after eclipsing MySpace in global users last year, now leads its social-networking rival in the U.S. as well, according to research firm ComScore Inc. The Palo Alto, Calif., company had 70.28 million U.S. users last month, topping MySpace's 70.26 million, ComScore said. Facebook's users almost doubled from a year earlier, while MySpace lost 5%. Facebook, which became the top global social-networking site a year ago, had 307.1 million users worldwide in April, the Reston, Va.

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Thursday tentatively threw out the conviction of a Missouri woman for her role in a cruel Internet hoax on a teenage girl who ended up committing suicide. The decision by U.S. District Judge George H. Wu, which will not become final until he files a written ruling, was a blow to prosecutors who had hoped to send the message that cyber-bullying is a crime. Wu had repeatedly delayed sentencing to consider a defense motion to dismiss the entire case. U.S. Atty.

MySpace says it can't guarantee that the people who sign up for its social networking site aren't underage or sex offenders. But it averted a potential legal battle Monday by agreeing to keep trying. A group of 49 state attorneys general probing safety issues at MySpace and other online social networks signed a deal with the Beverly Hills-based unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Memo to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: You can't be late for live television. Clinton was tardy Saturday to a satellite feed from Tucson for a live broadcast of an MTV candidate forum -- forcing the surprised hosts to fill nearly 15 minutes with chatter and interviews with the studio audience.

new york -- Spin Magazine's print subscriptions jumped in January at least in part for a surprising reason: Its pages were posted on the Web for free. Spin Digital, a highly interactive online version of the magazine, quietly made its debut on MySpace three weeks ago. It feels more like the print edition of the rock-music monthly than its Internet cousin, Spin.com. In fact, the digital version is the print edition.

MySpace, the top social networking site owned by News Corp., is in talks to create an online music joint venture with the four biggest record companies, sources familiar with the discussion said Wednesday. The talks are part of Rupert Murdoch's plans to distinguish MySpace, a haven for new music fans, from fast-moving rival Facebook as the premier destination for digital media. Plans for the service, tentatively named MySpace Music, are still in the discussion phase.

The online hangout MySpace is expanding its offerings for Latinos, adding eight bilingual communities focused on bands and celebrities, soccer and other interests. The year-old MySpace Latino has largely been a translation of MySpace's English-language site into Spanish. Beginning Tuesday, MySpace is unveiling content geared to one of the fastest-growing groups online. "It's been something they've been asking for," said Victor Kong, the Miami-based managing director for MySpace Latino.

An animal rights organization is urging the Orange County district attorney's office to "vigorously" prosecute a man who took a video of himself abusing rabbits and a dog, then posted it on MySpace, calling his behavior "extremely severe." Joseph Anthony Deiss, 19, of Yorba Linda was charged last week with three counts of animal cruelty and three charges of animal abuse by a caretaker after allegedly throwing a pug and two rabbits 15 to 30 feet in the air and allowing them to hit the ground.

MySpace can collect $6 million from a notorious Internet marketer accused by the popular online hangout of spamming its users. An arbitrator has ruled that Scott Richter and his Web marketing company, Media Breakaway of Westminster, Colo., must pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in attorney's fees for barraging MySpace members with unsolicited advertisements. Media Breakaway and its employees were also banned from the site. MySpace, a unit of News Corp.