Online Social Networking

Social Networks

Social Networks on the Internet are places where people can "connect" using a variety of tools and can set up their own Web pages. These applications, known as Online Social Networks have become very popular in the last few years. 

Their greatest appeal of these Social Network sites was originally to teens and young adults but they have gradually become more popular with older adults.  This attraction of the older generation has happened because many of the Social Networking sites have tried to set themselves up with functions, tools  and chats that appeal to more mature audiences.

The first social networking Website started in 1995 and was named  "Classmates.com".  Other sites soon followed and the popularity of these sites grew rapidly.  As of 2006, there were over 200 social networking sites on the Internet.

The content of these sites is relatively inexpensive for publishers to produce.  Once set up, the publishers send out messages inviting members of their own personal networks to join the networking site.  New members repeat the process, inviting their friends and thus increasing the total number of members and links in the online networks.  Different sites offer different features such as automatic address book updates, viewable profiles, and the ability to form new links through "introduction services".

Social networks can also be organized around business connections, as are sites like  "Shortcut" and "LinkedIn".

See the Top 20 List of SN Sites

MySpace set the Standard

Driven largely by word of mouth, MySpace grew astronomically since its launch in January 2004. 

• By 2005, MySpace was getting more page views than Google. Google even has its own social networking site  called "orkut", which it launched in 2004
• By April of 2006, MySpace became the most popular Social Network site on the web and offered a mix of features including message boards, games, and Web journals (which are designed to keep its youth-oriented visitors).

MySpace has successfully built communities around music, becoming the go-to place for emerging bands, and it wants to replicate that success in film and comedy.

There have also been concerns about user safety at social network sites because of several widely publicized incidents of cyberstalking that started on MySpace.  The stalkers became friends with young female MySpace users.

For most Social Networking  sites, Groups are visible only to their members, and even within the Groups, a person's friends and colleagues are described only by title, not by their name.  Because of the incidents of cyberstalking,  most Social Networking sites restrict Group and Individual Information so it can only be viewed by the members.  But some site still make this information available to the public.

Because of these concerns, many more Social Network sites are adding stricter security measures and getting more protective of the individual's data.

A good Rule-of-Thumb to live by is:
"If you put information on the internet, it will be viewed by the World".

For any personal information that you want to keep private, the last place you should  post it is on the web and especially not on a Social Networking Site.

Blended Networking is an approach to Social Networking that combines both offline elements (face-to-face events) and online elements. For example, "MySpace" builds on independent music and the party scene, while "Facebook" tries to mirror a college community.

The newest Social Network Sites on the Internet are becoming more specialized niches such as specializing in art, tennis, soccer, golf, cars and even dog owners.

Why Online Social Networking Sites are so Popular

1. It's a very quick and easy way to set up a Website page
2. You don't have to purchase a Domain name to have a web page.
3. You don't have to know how to program in HTML, although some Social Network sites let you do more customization if you are able to work with HTML.
4. Many of the Social Networking sites offer you space for FREE, although some sites will post advertisements on your Web pages.
5. You can set up a social network of friends who you allow to interact with you.
6. You can post pictures and audio, as well as text about yourself on your web page

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The Top Twenty Social Networking Sites as of February 2007

According to Hitwise, the US market share of Internet traffic to the top 20 social networking sites grew by 11.5 percent from January to February 2007, to account for 6.5 percent of all Internet traffic in February 2007

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