On Tuesday, ComScore released the results of a recently completed study; as it turned out, the number of Internet users with new accounts on social networking websites has gone up by 25 percent in the last year.

Jack Flanagan, executive VP of ComScore, while discussing the newly found data, said, with regard to North America, that after a very forceful start, the social networking trend is slowly heading towards a point of maturity. In the US and Canada, the number or new users has only risen by 9 percent since June 2007.

However, the market is going strong in other regions of the globe, as now, the American brands are turning their attention towards other countries and areas. In Asia, the growth was of 23 percent; Latin America had 33 percent and Europe 35 percent; the most significant boosts were recorded in the Middle East and Africa, where the number of users went up by no less than 66 percent.

As many of you know already, Facebook is currently the fastest-growing website, having recorded an increase of 153 percent (unique visitors). Next in line came Hi5, which grew 100 percent, Friendster with 50 percent; Google's Orkut had a 41 percent rise and AOL's Bebo ended the year with 32 percent.

According to ComScore, News Corp.'s MySpace, which remains the largest network in the US, does not appear to be riding the wave, when looking at the new numbers; the website’s unique visitors have only recorded a 3 percent year-over-year rise.