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.

Australian victims of an online scam has reported losses of more than $40,000 in the first few hours after the national hotline was open today at 9am AEST. It had received more than 30 calls, mostly from Victoria, as it collects information about the scam which the IOC received complaints from overseas victims.

Sports fans have said that the website in question was the US-based beijingticketing.com. Even the former NSW opposition leader Kerry Chikarovski was stung by the site after it first appeared on the popular Google search engine’s advertising.

The fake site is also reported to contain English grammatical errors. Victims who paid by credit cards can call their financial institutions to recoup the loss - while some may not be able to receive any compensation for the tickets.

People living in the state of New South Wales can contact the NSW Office of Fair Trading on 1800 055 555; while others can contact their local Office of Fair Trading for more information.

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.

O2 in the UK has plugged the security hole after it caused a storm of people angry with the service after it had been revealed that photos sent by MMS can be found with a simple Google search.

MMS messages are sent to its web server if the recipient does not have a compatible phone - like the iPhone 3G - and the recipient will receive a URL so that they can view the image themselves. But it had been discovered it could be accessed by a simple InURL search on Google.

It has taken down the server, with people attempting to view the site are now redirected to an Apache server error. The leak - many containing images of children - was embarrassing to the company, as it also runs a site that is dedicated to protecting children online.

Google is in the process of buying the Russian contextual ad company ZAO Begun for $140 million from the UK-registered Rambler Media, according to TechCrunch.

While the ad company is a Russian company, many firms have based themselves in the UK; with Rambler owning 50.1 percent of the company. Basically, Rambler will buy the other 49.9 percent from Bannatyne Limited and then sell the firm to Google.

As well, Rambler will also use Google Adsense’s services for Content and Search.

Firefox has this neat feature where it can be used as a search box as well. However, unlike the search box, it is reliant on Google. Sometimes, we need to give the other search engines a chance. So, in this TECHGEEK Quick Tip, we are going to teach you how to change the search feature on the address bar from Google to Yahoo and Windows Live.

I bet you are now screaming: Why in the F**k would I do that? Well, we are doing this to keep this fair and balanced. (Now I’m starting to sound like Fox News!)

In our previous tip, we showed you the basics of the about:config in Firefox. You should read this before doing this tutorial, since this will tell you some basic functions of the about:config page. We will still put in the instructions the steps on how to do the about:config if you are just too lazy to read.

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As part of its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube, Viacom had asked for the source code for all of its search functions on the YouTube site, its new "Video ID" program and databases containing all user information and every video hosted on YouTube, including all private videos and those removed.

Though Viacom won’t be able to get all of the source codes, it will be able to access all the databases containing what videos you watch and all videos hosted and those were removed. However, your private videos will not be given to Viacom.

The user database, which is 12TB, will allow Viacom to determine on all the views that its content uploaded without their permission - among the other information that could be used against other lawsuits. In other words - if you watch anime on YouTube, Viacom will now know what anime you watched.

YouTube currently insists that it is protected by the DMCA’s "safe harbour" provisions, but with this decision - it looks like that the case would continue until 2010.

Google has confirmed that all of its US-based employees hired prior to 2006 after its data was stolen in a recent burglary in an external company, Colt Express Outsourcing Services.

The burglary, on the 26 May this year, also affected other clients, including CNET Networks - who had 6,500 of their employees’ details stolen. The data contained names, addresses and social security numbers, and Colt did not put protection on the information.

Though there is no evidence that the data is currently being misused, the information is sufficient enough to create fake accounts and identities. The company is also reported to be in financial difficulty and could not help those affected.

Google is offering all affected and former employees a free one-year credit monitoring service. A similar deal were offered to CNET Networks employees.

Joining the Office Open XML file document types, the International Organization for Standardization have made another popular type an international standard.

Adobe’s Portable Document Format, or the PDF, was announced as a standard on Wednesday morning, after Adobe passed the entire specifications over to the organization. It also looks like that there is no changes to the specifications.

The PDF format is a well known standard, thanks to the distribution of the Adobe’s own reader and other software that can open the files. As well, Apple and Google have integrated the file format, with Google allowing users to read the PDF as an HTML document.

The Department of Justice in the US is now opening a formal investigation into the partnership between Google and Yahoo, the first and second place leaders in search. The investigation comes after the DoJ is fearing that it would reduce competition in the online advertising market.

It is currently preparing demands for information from executives at both companies and rival advertising firms. There was initially a two-week test run, but a formal investigation suggests that they have concrete concerns about the deal.

According to The Register, the DoJ would not open a "full probe" unless the firms were carrying out a full merger.