With new Internet usage figures showing that social networking phenomenon Facebook has finally overhauled News Corp-owned rival MySpace, media titan Rupert Murdoch has opted to publicly dismiss Facebook’s meteoric rise as little more than an example of flash-in-the-pan popularity.

Speaking at this year’s Cannes Lions advertising festival, the prominent News Corp. CEO commented that Facebook had “done a great job of being flavour of the month,” across the last six months of 2007, but it failed to convince as a true social networking experience.

Suggesting that the application-rich service is just a “directory,” Murdoch moved to further bolster the worth of News Corp’s MySpace by pointing out that it creates more revenue than Facebook and maintains user attention via a defined focus on entertainment.

However, despite Murdoch’s viewpoint as to the standing of MySpace and Facebook, worldwide figures for the month of May released by Internet number cruncher Comscore show Facebook atop the social networking pile thanks to 123.9 million unique visitors, while MySpace trails for the very first time with 114.6 million uniques.

According to Comscore’s data, Facebook’s marked boost in visitors equates to year-on-year growth of 162 percent, as opposed to MySpace’s somewhat paltry 5 percent.

While global popularity has seemingly shifted in Facebook’s favour, it would appear that MySpace still holds sway in the United States, which is a region responsible for providing News Corp’s service with around $1 billion USD throughout 2007. By comparison, a Financial Times report suggests that Facebook was only able to summon up approximately $150 million USD during the same period.

Yet, although Murdoch is keen to stress the financial worth of MySpace while passing Facebook off as a temporary fad, it’s worth pointing out that MySpace has redefined its delivery by aping features and attributes found via Facebook. These include the introduction of a friends-based activity feed, the opening of third-party application development, and also the launch of a cleaner, more accessible interface system.