The Sudden Rise Of Social Networking Sites By Mikael Andersohn At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Social networking sites are abundant nowadays. In fact, these are the sites that define the new Internet, the Web 2.0. Social networking sites have become instrumental not only in bringing people together in the World Wide Web, but also to propagate the different Internet-based businesses that exist.

The Different Kinds of Social Networking Sites

There are different kinds of social networking sites that you can find in the Internet. These are, namely: social bookmarking sites, community websites and the dating sites.

Social bookmarking sites are sites that allow users to share and bookmark information which they think are useful to other users. These bookmarks are viewed and voted for by other users, and this rank is used as a basis for the bookmark’s popularity. If a site or page is popular enough, it will appear permanently on the bookmarking site. Several businesses have taken advantage of these bookmarking sites to build up backlinks and gain rank in search engine result pages. Example of a social bookmarking site is http://Digg.com.

Dating sites are built specifically to help people find their match, either for a serious relationship or just for plain companionship. There are different kinds of dating sites in the Internet. There are some that are meant for a specific race, or nationality. Some are also exclusive to people of a certain faith like Jewish people, Moslem people and Christians. Others are aimed towards a specific sexual orientation, and are either heterosexual or homosexual.

Community websites are a type of social networking site that are true to the purpose of social networking sites and, that is, to bring together people. They allow people to share information about each other (although privacy is still an option) as well as media, files, and photos. These websites can also function as dating sites, although they do not have the matchmaking feature that dating sites are known for.

Examples of Social Networking Sites

Friendster is a good example of a social networking site. First appearing in 2002, it was once the number 1 social networking site until 2004. Friendster’s algorithm is based on the theory that the world is small and round. Indeed, it shows how people are connected to each other through a network.

Friendster is protected by a patent that was issued to it in 2006. This patent protects its algorithm which details how it calculates the social relationship of two users inside the friendster network. If a user is not part of the other’s network, the system can show how they are related by showing which people are common in their individual networks.

Another example of a social networking site is Multiply. In contrast to Friendster, Multiply is an attempt to simulate a real-world network of relationships in a website. When a user is adding a contact to his network, he can specify how he is related to that person, or something close to the actual connection. Multiply allows a user to share his life with his contacts and even the whole community through blogs, videos, music and pictures.

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