According to comScore’s data which was released today; both MySpace and Facebook - the two most popular social networking sites in the US - are lagging in Japan by another social network, Mixi.jp.

While Facebook is improving in market share, it still has less visitors than current market leader, Mixi.jp - Facebook’s 538,000 to Mixi’s 12,738,000 visitors. However, Google’s Orkut is the most engaging social network with users users spending 454 minutes per visitor - which equates to 7 hours per visitor.

The huge stranglehold by Mixi can be because of MySpace and Facebook launching in Japan a couple of years later than Mixi, thus allowing Mixi to have a better identity and a ‘head-start’ in Japan.

You can see the results here from comScore.

Time Warner’s Chief Executive has confirmed that AOL will be split into two starting from next year, according to CNET News.com. Jeff Bewkes has said that AOL will spilt its dial-up internet access and its media units in a release announcing the company’s second-quarter earnings.

The online service and media company saw revenues drop 16 percent to $1.1 billion in Q2 this year; however advertising were up to $8 million, a 2 percent increase - even though ad-revenues on AOL-owned sites were down.

The provider also lost 604,000 subscribers in the second quarter as well - leaving it with 8.1 million subscribers. This comes after it raised fees on its dial-up service in June.

It is rumoured that EarthLink is interested in buying its internet-access business from AOL.

It turns out that at least two people who instant message each other are distanced by 6.6 degrees of separation, or linked by a string of seven people or less.

Thanks to Microsoft’s new survey focused on the popular concept that inspired games like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, it contains all of the instant messaging network traffic from MSN/Windows Live in June 2006, or roughly half of the world’s IM traffic at that time.

So, for example, I could be speaking to a person who is friends with James, but has links with Stewart and has met Kenny. That is an awkward scenario, but it could happen. Tell us your own six/seven degrees of separation, it would be kind of fun to see if this is actually true.

Jerry Yang and the rest of the board have survived a Yahoo shareholder meeting, after all were at risk of losing their seats; until they made a settlement with Carl Icahn, who launched a proxy battle after the Microhoo deal was formally rejected by the company in May.

While roughly 85 percent of the shareholders supported Jerry Yang, 79 percent supported Roy Bostock - both instrumental in the company’s rejection of the $44.6 billion takeover bid made by Microsoft. Director Robert Kotick, however, left the board of directors; though he was backed by 92.5 percent of those voted - this is because he would resign, with Icahn taking his place.

Meanwhile, Time Warner has said that former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller cannot join the Yahoo board until March 2009 as part of a non-compete clause in his contract. A source has told Reuters that Miller had believed that Time Warner would oppose his joining, claiming that the top execs at Time Warner had "greenlit" it.

Could this see a merger between AOL and Yahoo? We will have to wait and see.

After the collapse of local seller on eBay, EBS International, its subsidiary PayPal will reimburse customers that have been left out of pocket by its sudden collapse.

While there would not be a limit on how much you will be entitled to be refunded, there will be a criteria - which still needs to be worked out. It is most likely for those who bought goods from EBS International and did not receive them or haven’t receive their refund.

EBS sold equipment such as bikes and other exercise equipment on sites like eBay, but went into administration last week.

Scrabulous fans in the US have been awoken with something horrible to them, they won’t be able to play the Scrabble knockoff as it had been abruptly removed from Facebook.com, according to several sources - including the New York Times.

As well, just to make matters worse, the official Hasbro (the owners in the US and Canada) version of Scrabble did not work either, with the game being a victim of "a malicious attack". EA, the creator of the game, has said that it will launch an investigation of the apparent hacking, pointing no fingers at the moment.

However, bowing to legal pressure, the Scrabulous brothers from Calcutta have shut the application to users in Canada and the United States. And this created a huge backlash, including new groups like "Down with Hasbro", flooded its message boards and even bloggers denounced Hasbro.

And you would think I would get into this mess, I won’t. Because I don’t live in Hasbro’s territory, and Mattel does own the Scrabble rights here - and around the world. I would say this - you are just not seeing that fans are actually playing Scrabble, no matter if its some clone of it. Just make a deal with them (does not mean buy them).

Anyway, the Scrabble application by Hasbro has attracted about 15,000 daily users with mixed reviews - including critics saying that it had "pathetic" upload time. Mattel also has an application out for those outside the US.

NEWS IN BRIEF: AOL is making big budget cuts in its blogging properties, according to TechCrunch. The cuts range up, according to their sources, to 25% of each blog’s total budget - and the main cuts are from personnel costs.

The bloggers are now told that they should take a couple of weeks off, and there may or may not have a job in AOL in August.

However, the AOL Tech Network, which includes Engadget and TUAW, is reported to be immune from the cuts, since it continues to grow and gives some substantial revenue to the company.

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis have filed a lawsuit to find out who operates a blog that is harshly critical of Godwin and the police department.

However, they have not sued the bloggers, but they have sued AOL for the names and all information related to an email address that is linked to the blog.

The blog, MPD Enforcer 2.0, is operated under an alias of Dirk Diggler - a porn star in “Boogie Nights” - say that their site provides important information to the officers and to the citizens of Memphis. However, it is unknown if the city wants to shut down the site or just want it to stop leaks that might affect investigations.

Meanwhile, the site has spoken to their attorneys and has posted the subpoena that it has been given to AOL.

“In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment, GODwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to ruin the Constitution of the United States!” the bloger wrote on the site.

“Some members of the Enforcer 2.0 have contacted their attorneys and we are in the process of filing a lawsuit against Larry and the City of Memphis. What’s wrong Larry? The truth hurt?”

MySpace users will now be able to connect to sites that support OpenID with their MySpace account, joining the already 120 million+ who currently have an OpenID in use. It will join Yahoo, Flickr, Blogger and AOL in using the new login standard.

OpenID’s way of logging in is you type in a special URL, depending on which of your accounts support OpenID. They usually are just blogs, or links to your profile - but some, like Yahoo, need you to type in their address and you login on their site.

MySpace will become a provider, giving accounts to users, and will allow them to access other OpenID-supported sites, like TECHGEEK.com.au and Twitterfeed, or known as "relaying parties". But, however, you will not be able to use your current OpenID to login to MySpace.

Did you know you can use your OpenID to comment on TECHGEEK.com.au. It is a much easier way to have your say. Log In now!

TechCrunch is reporting that search giant Google is close to acquiring social news aggregator Digg for around $200 million, with the companies are in "final negotiations" according to their sources.

It would most likely to be under its Google News property, but it could still fall through or another party would step in, like Microsoft - whom they have an advertising deal with and will be terminated if a sale to Google is a likely outcome.

It is one of the best known sites, competiting with Reddit and Slashdot, and has a loyal community. It launched in November 2004 by Kevin Rose and CEO Jay Adelson. Rose also hosts "Diggnation", a show based around news on Digg.