For most people, listening to music online is terribly convenient, and the occasional audio ad shouldn’t represent a deal breaker.  MySpace may be making a smart move, then, as it’s begun testing 30-second ads with help from an Internet radio advertising company called TargetSpot.

A high-ranking MySpace executive might be ready to depart, according to a new report.  Rumor has it that Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn, who’s been with the company for less than a year, is making his way towards the exit.

This story appears to deserve some heavy disclaimers; since it began to spread, Hirschhorn wrote on his MySpace page, "i love fiction," and classified his mood as "amused."

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said today he is calling on social networking sites at aimed at children to provide more protections against the threat of sexual predators.

Cuomo said that the Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP) law he authored has now resulted in the removal of accounts associated with at least 4,336 registered sex offenders from major social networking websites in the U.S.

Back in the summer MySpace launched its own email service called MySpace Mail. The company has now announced that it has surpassed 15 million accounts for that service.

"Adoption by our users has experienced phenomenal growth, well exceeding initial expectations," says MySpace’s Rajit Marwah. "At launch we set a goal of 10 million accounts created within a year – we knew we were on to something when we surpassed this goal in less than a quarter."

While parents often have concerns about allowing their teens to use social media sites like Facebook and MySpace, a new study by University of Virginia psychologists indicates that well-adjusted youth with positive friendships use these sites to improve the positive relationships they already have.

However, they cautioned teens who have behavioral problems and difficulty making friends, or who are depressed, may be more likely to use social media in negative and sometimes aggressive ways.

Rumors of MySpace integrating Facebook Connect have circulated since October. And now it looks like they’re coming true: MySpace’s Fan Video site allows users to login with either MySpace or Facebook accounts.

As we did last year, we have gone back through our archives and picked out some of the most noteworthy social media items we have covered since 2009 began. Now that 2009 is almost over, it was worth going  back and seeing what all has happened.

If you come across missing items, please feel free to share them in the comments.

Update: VerticalResponse CEO Janine Popick has written a separate piece adding 10 more reasons.

Update: MySpace has sent an email around to imeem users giving them an update about playlists.

MySpace, The Wall Street Journal, and the World Economic Forum, are giving a MySpace user the chance to be a citizen journalist at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

The MySpace Citizen Journalist winner will be chosen by a panel of experts and will join the Davos press corps using MySpace to report on the conference news and interview world leaders about relevant issues. This year the contest is expanding to include entries from users in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Simon Fuller, creator of "American Idol," is partnering with Hulu on an online reality program that follows the lives of five people hoping to make it in Hollywood.

The new online program called "If I Can Dream" will launch in early 2010 with each episode streaming exclusively on Hulu. Hulu says "If I Can Dream" will be the first recurring show to be available to international audiences.

Simon Fuller, creator of "American Idol," is partnering with Hulu on an online reality program that follows the lives of five people hoping to make it in Hollywood.

The new online program called "If I Can Dream" will launch in early 2010 with each episode streaming exclusively on Hulu. Hulu says "If I Can Dream" will be the first recurring show to be available to international audiences.

Simon Fuller, creator of "American Idol," is partnering with Hulu on an online reality program that follows the lives of five people hoping to make it in Hollywood.

The new online program called "If I Can Dream" will launch in early 2010 with each episode streaming exclusively on Hulu. Hulu says "If I Can Dream" will be the first recurring show to be available to international audiences.

Simon Fuller, creator of "American Idol," is partnering with Hulu on an online reality program that follows the lives of five people hoping to make it in Hollywood.

The new online program called "If I Can Dream" will launch in early 2010 with each episode streaming exclusively on Hulu. Hulu says "If I Can Dream" will be the first recurring show to be available to international audiences.

NBC is introducing a new social media game aimed at promoting the network’s series "Chuck" by getting fans to spread the word about the program on social networking sites.

The game called "Mission: Chuck Me Out" allows fans to use Facebook, Twitter and MySpace or the Chuck Me Out website to talk about the show.

Over the past several months, MySpace has become much more formidable thanks to some new features, a deal with a record label, and a couple of acquisitions.  It looks like the growth spurt may not be over, either, as a report’s indicated that MySpace is now interested in getting to know Flixster.

The majority (86%) of women are now using popular social networks, a 48 percent increase over 2008, according to a new study by SheSpeaks.

In addition, social networks including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, have become drivers of purchase intent among women, with 50 percent of social media users reporting they have purchased products because of information on social networking sites, and 40 percent have used coupon codes found on social networks.

Real-time search is, appropriately enough, going to become quite visible very soon.  Google announced today that it’s rolling out real-time features, and the comprehensiveness of this effort is almost unprecedented as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are all onboard.

Google’s list of partners doesn’t stop there; FriendFeed, Identi.ca, and Jaiku are also cooperating.  Plus, standard blogs, news sites, and other Google properties (like YouTube) are contributing to the stream of information that’ll become available following a standard search.

MySpace has announced a new set of APIs. These include APIs for real-time streaming, status and mood commenting, open search, photo uploading, and an updated version of the post to/share API.

MySpace has launched a new version of its mobile site at m.myspace.com for people who use iPhone, Android, and Palm WebOS. This version is optimized to take advantage of the browsers and screen sizes of these devices.