Bebo tops social networking survey

Bebo has beaten its rival Facebook to be named the best performing social networking site by Computing Which?

Yahoo! Groups received the lowest overall score of the 10 internet sites judged by the magazine.

Bebo - which is aimed at 13 to 24-year-olds - was praised for encouraging "responsible networking", which means users can restrict who sees their information and block unwanted visitors from their site.

Bebo also gives plenty of advice on security risks and how they can be avoided, Computing Which? said.

Facebook - which is the UK's most popular social networking site - got an overall score of 74% compared to Bebo at 79%.

Computing Which? said Facebook had a simple interface which made it easy to navigate but the magazine added: "Our expert felt it was confusing to find out and change who can see what about you. Plus, it wasn't easy to find out how to permanently delete our account."

Yahoo! Groups scored 59%, with Computing Which? describing the site as less sophisticated than some of its rivals.

The sites were assessed according to ease of use, performance, and the functions which they offered.

Computing Which? editor Abigail Waraker said: "Social networking sites are growing in popularity and, as the success of Bebo in our test shows, sites like MySpace and Facebook can't rest on their laurels if they want to stay in the game."

Social networking sites are online groups where members can email friends, leave messages on friend's message boards, share photos and video clips, and download small programmes called applets which enable users to play games.

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