Social Networking Sites!

Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information. The most popular social networking websites that are being used regularly by millions of people include:


FACEBOOK - Users can add friends, send messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region.

Facebook’s features:

1. Wall - a space on every user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see,
2. Pokes - allows users to send a virtual "poke" to each other; a notification then tells a user that they have been poked.
3. Photos - allows users to upload albums and unlimited number of photos.
4. Status - allows users to inform their friends of their actions.
5. Wall is visible to anyone who is able to see that user's profile, depending on privacy settings.

6. News Feed - appears on every user's homepage and highlights information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays of the user's friends.
7. Tag, or label users in a photo - user can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a notification to the friend that they have been tagged, and provides them a link to see the photo.
8. Chat - allows users to communicate with friends and is similar in functionality to desktop-based instant messengers.
9. Gifts - allows users to send virtual gifts to their friends that appear on the recipient's profile.

MYSPACE - anyone can customize the layout and colors of their profile page with virtually no restrictions; it allows users to customize their user profile pages by entering HTML into such areas as "About Me," "I'd Like to Meet," and "Interests." Users also have the option to add music to their profile pages via MySpace Music, a service that allows bands to post songs for use on MySpace.

MySpace’s features:

1. MySpace Records - artists can upload their songs onto MySpace and have access to millions of people on a daily basis.
2. Bulletins - posts that are posted on to a "bulletin board" for everyone on a MySpace user's friends list to see. Bulletins can be useful for contacting an entire friends list without resorting to messaging users individually. Bulletins are deleted after ten days.
3. Groups - feature which allows a group of users to share a common page and message board.
4. MySpace IM - an instant messenger. Users who use MySpace IM get instant notification of new MySpace messages, friend requests, and comments.
5. MySpace TV - similar to the YouTube website.
6. MySpace News - displays news from RSS feeds that users submit. It also allows users to rank each news story by voting for it. The more votes a story gets, the higher the story moves up the page.

FRIENDSTER - allow users to contact other members, maintain those contacts, and share online content and media with those contacts. The website is also used for dating and discovering new events, bands, and hobbies. Users may share videos, photos, messages and comments with other members via their profile and their network.

LINKEDIN - LinkedIn allow users to connect professionally and build relationships with people. It also allows users to research companies with which they may be interested in working. The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections.

• A contact network is built up through direct connections, second-degree connections and third-degree connections. This can be used to gain an introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
• It is used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.
• Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates. Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.