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Social networking site Bebo has been named the top performing Web site of its kind in a new report from Computing Which?

The report examined ten of the most popular sites over a range of categories including ease of use, set-up, protection of member's privacy and the variety of features they offer. Bebo and Facebook received the highest scores of 79 percent and 74 percent respectively and were rated easier to use than MySpace and best for socializing.

Bebo, which is aimed at 13- to 24- year old age group, received praise for working to encourage responsible networking. "Users can restrict who sees their information, and block users, and there's plenty of advice on security risks and how to avoid those," the report said.

MySpace received an overall score of 67 percent and Microsoft Windows Live Spaces scored 65 percent.

Abigail Waralker, the editor of Computing Which?, 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."

"It's also encouraging to see that no matter what age you are or what interests you have, there is a social networking site out there for you."