By Anshul ECE
Nothing has changed the Web more than the rise of social networking
sites. Before social networking, the World Wide Web was full of interesting
information, but there was little opportunity to contribute or participate.
Today, social networking sites are fulfilling the potential of the
Web: connecting people across the globe. But why do they matter so much?
"With social networks, we're able to visualize the connections
between individuals, says Fred Stutzman, Ph.D. student and teaching fellow,
School of Information and Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill. "Even if the
value or magnitude of the connection is the same for everyone (and that doesn't
mirror real life), knowing the connections between individuals helps us better understand
them, who they are connected to, and how they are connected to us."
If Stutzman is right, understanding the way these networking sites
work will help us understand ourselves and our friends. So read on to discover
the 10 social networking sites that you should know about today.
Facebook
Mr. Zuckerberg Revenue
US$ 3.71 billion
founder
It was 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg started asking his fellow Harvard
University students to try out his new idea known as "the facebook."
The online community allowed his peers to create personal profiles, search for profiles
and invite others from the university to join. It was a smashing success almost
immediately. In 2006, Facebook opened
its virtual doors to anyone with a registered e-mail address.
Not content to rest upon his accomplishments, Zuckerberg continued to
push for new features. One of the most revolutionary was creating an
application programming interface (API) for third-party developers. Suddenly,
programmers could design applications that could tap into Facebook's massive
population. Applications range from simple games and diversions to clever
marketing campaigns.
Facebook has become the most
visited social networking site in the world, receiving more than 10 million
unique visitors than MySpace in January 2009, making it the No. 1 social
networking site on our list.
2. Twitter:-
Jack Dorsey
Founder
Revenue US$ 140 million
Part Web site, part Web service – Twitter is an online environment
where users can create profiles, fill them with information and then build a
network of people they "follow" (and a band of others who follow
them).
Twitter sends messages between users via the Short Message Service
(SMS), better known as text messaging. Members send their texts through Twitter
to those they allow to follow them. The messages, called Tweets, are super
short: only 140 charters or shorter (there are technically 160 characters for
use, but the first 20 are there to make room for user names in messages.)
"Even the president of the United States has a Facebook fan page
and uses Twitter to reach the American public where he has over 262,000
followers," says Brenda Powell, president and founder of the company
Social Networking Girls. All sorts of famous people are on Twitter. If you sign
up for an account, you can follow astronauts, scientists,athletes, musicians,
actors and writers. Or you can ignore the celebrities and focus on your
friends.
3. LinkedIn
Revenue US$243 million
Santa Monica
founder
LinkedIn is a social networking site designed for professionals. It
boasts a membership of more than 35 million people and claims that executives
from every Fortune 500 company has member profiles on the site. The profiles
focus on members' professional experience and skills.
But does everyone use it to their full potential? Maybe. Maybe not.
"I'm sure there are people who have an account and profile on
LinkedIn, and do nothing more than accept the occasional introduction to
connect, and have been prospected as a candidate,” says Jason Alba, CEO of the
job search organizer site JibberJobber.com.
"If it were me," he continues, "I'd be much more
aggressive, however, and have a more proactive LinkedIn strategy, which would
include growing my network, searching for people in my target companies, using
LinkedIn Answers, participating in groups, etc."
The site also supports activities beyond networking with potential
employers, employees or clients. For example, LinkedIn provides a platform that
allows members to collaborate on projects -- a virtual meeting room of sorts.
5. Hi5
As the fastest-growing social networking site in the world for the
first half of 2008, Hi5 is the largest site of its kind that you may have never
heard of. The site grew 78 percent in the first half of 2008 alone.
Based in San Francisco, Hi5 launched in 2003 and was turning a profit
by 2004. By 2005, the site had 10 million members. While sites like Facebook
and MySpace began to dominate the U.S. social networking scene, Hi5 began to
look at other opportunities internationally.
In 2006, it launched a Spanish version of the site to great success.
Versions of the site in other languages soon followed. This new focus paid off.
Hi5 became the most popular social networking site in Mexico and many Latin
American countries. Like many other social networking sites, members create
profiles, share photos, play games and post messag
Friendster
founder
Friendster was one of the first sites to introduce the concept of
online social networking to the Web. Jonathan Abrams conceived of the site and
launched it in 2002, just two years after the infamous dotcom crash. Abrams saw
untapped potential on the World Wide Web -- you could get to know the people
your friends know and expand your social network.
Abrams' goal was to create a site that anyone could use. One of his
inspirations for Friendster came from the way his friends networked in the real
world. He wanted to create an equally organic experience using the Web. That
meant designing a streamlined design and interface.
Friendster gained popularity quickly. In 2003, the Internet search
giant Google offered to purchase Friendster but a deal couldn't be reached.
Years later, the two companies would sign a $20 million deal that would
incorporate Google search services on the Friendster Web site.
Alas, Friendster lost its dominant position in the U.S. social
networking site market when MySpace's popularity skyrocketed, though it still
has a strong user base in the U.S. and continues to be very popular in Asia.
Orkut
founder
Orkut is an online social network owned by Google. Originally based in
California, the site now calls Brazil home. While 17 percent of its traffic is
from the United States, it never really took off in the U.S.
But Brazilians adopted the site as their preferred online social
network -- more than 50 percent of all traffic to Orkut comes from Brazil.
According to the analytics firm comScore, more than 20 million Brazilians
visited Orkut in September 2008, making it the most popular Web site in Brazil.
In that same month, only 893,000 Brazilians visited MySpace.
Why has Orkut become so popular in Brazil? One theory is that the
site's name is easy for Portuguese speakers to pronounce, though they pronounce
it "or-KOO-chee." Another is
that there are no ads on Orkut pages. Orkut
is also popular in India, which supplies another 17 percent of the site's
traffic. While it may never gain a firm standing in the United States, it's
still a success story.
MySpace
founder
MySpace isn't the oldest online social network, but it helped define
them -- and it incorporates many different Web services into a comprehensive
package. Every MySpace profile comes with the ability to post blogs, news items
and status updates and create rich, detailed user profiles. Members can post
and share pictures, videos and music, plus can create groups and invite other
members to join.
But what makes MySpace stand out from the crowd is the sweet sound of
free marketing. For bands and unsigned performers, MySpace is a sort of virtual
audition stage to debut new tracks, share information or arrange special shows
for their fans.
In late 2009, the news broke that MySpace would begin to use Facebook
Connect, an API developed by the site's largest rival in the social community
market. Could this mean MySpace will shift more toward being a content site for
musicians than a social networking site?
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