MySpace is fast becoming one of the hottest social-networking/music sites and is poised to help lead their evolution into a new form of media, becoming part entertainment - and a substitute for TV, with participants sharing in the drama of other peoples' lives on the web rather than the tube - writes Business Week (via paidcontent). In the process, social networking sites are gaining the potential to become the next major medium for advertisers.

MySpace is quickly developing into a powerful way to reach 16- to 30-year-old consumers, a sought-after demographic. MySpace revenues already come largely from ads - in April, it claimed 4.4 percent of online ad impressions, up from 3.7 percent in March - from the likes of P&G and GE. But there's competition from Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL, all of which are moving into social networking: surely a sign of what's to come.