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Ad executives spent Tuesday evening telling me that Facebook's advertising innovations have "blown MySpace out of the water," to quote one source. But you won't catch News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch acting like he's been left high and dry, at least not publicly. Reporting News Corp.'s third-quarter earnings yesterday, Murdoch said "any fear [about MySpace] is misplaced." Why? According to reports, Murdoch told analysts Facebook isn't a social network like MySpace, it's a utility. "Like a phonebook."

No, Rupert, that's Google. But give Murdoch credit for turning Mark Zuckerberg's "social utility" pretensions against him. And if you believe the figures he spouted yesterday, Murdoch's right to be confident in MySpace's health.

According to Murdoch & Co., MySpace is growing plenty and earning more, with more than twice as many unique visitors as Facebook last month. MySpace display advertising grew 32 percent year-over-year, a pace that is expected to pick up after MySpace's own behavioral targeting efforts come into play.

(Photo by AP/Mark Lennihan)