So many researches about social networking are getting published everyday, that it's hard to know the truth – What are the hottest new networks? Wich socail network is most likley to get you laid? Which network will change the way we consume air? And… well, you get our drift.

But every once in a while a certain research gets lots of attention, and that's when we are starting to act like everything that's written in it are plain facts (yeah, some of us at the 8hands mega-team are suckers). This time we are all circling around the latest research of Hitwise that was published last week and showed the 20 most popular networks and some very interesting statistics – and no, we are not talking about the fact that MySpace is the biggest network (with 80.74% of the market), our parents could have said that themselves.

Here are some of the findings:

• In 2007, social networking visits increased 11.5% from January to February.
• Social Networks hold 6.5% of the overall internet traffic in February 2007.
• Traffic to social networks gone 87% up since last year (comparing February 2006 to February 2006).
• Some networks are growing like crazy! From January to February Buzznet went up by 148.4% and our beloved Imeem grow by 145.7%.
• Some other networks are doing well too… From January to February Hoverspot jumped 19.6% up & Bebo (before you'll blink we will add 8hands support for it!) climbed by 17.8%.
• As we mentioned above, we are trying to avoid any MySpace Statistics that were found here (ok… we get it… you are BIG), but the next finding is astonishing: The other 19 networks on the top 20 list, received 25.8% of their upstream visits from MySpace – that is 1 out 4 entries!

Here are the top 20:

So… We are happy to see that little & new social networks are on the (atomic) rise – personally we are tired of all the MySpace madness (everything been said before: the layout, the spam, the eager-to-be-popular Tom – Been there done that!). It's the smooth & clean iMeem, Last.fm & Super Deluxe that get our love these days, and you know how it is - it changes by the week.

That's why we would love to add to 8hands as many social networks as possible – We keep registering ourselves in so many sites, knowing that soon enough we will be able to control them all from one location - our tiny & handsome desktop application. Facebook, Bebo, Friendster & Xanga will be added to the long list of the networks that are already supported by 8hands, and after them – many others. All we want to know, is which networks will you, the 8hands users, would like to see in the app. Leave a comment, mail us to info@8hands.com or even stop us on the streets. You know who we are – damn it, it's not so hard, we've got 8 hands!