pankaj report

8/2/2019 Pankaj Report

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A

PROJECT STUDYREPORT

ON

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

2010-12

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Ms. PADMA SHARMA PANKAJ KR. SINHA

MBA, 2nd SEM.


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PREFACE

Any technological advancement presents social scientists with an opportunity to gaininsight into human behaviour and the innovation of online social networking has

presented those of us interested in understanding the uses of social networking sites

and their contribution in development of youngster and also to review how these

social networking sites are developing in getting fame worldwide.

Social networking sites offer people new and varied ways to communicate via

the internet, whether through their PC or their mobile phone. They allow people to

easily and simply create their own online page or profile and to construct and display

an online network of contacts, often called friends. Users of these sites can

communicate via their profile both with their friends and with people outside their list

of contacts.

The rapid growth of social networking sites in recent years indicates that they

are now a mainstream communications technology for many people.


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Acknowledgement

I take proud privilege in extending my sincere thanks and gratitude to the

management of Arya Institute Of Engg. & Technology.

I would like to thank to Ms. PADMA SHARMA our teacher for guiding me

throughout seminar report as well as for providing me the valuable support.

I owe a great debt to my family and friends who have been a source of inspiration to

me.

PANKAJ KR. SINHA


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INTRODUCTION

Wikipedia states that a social network is a social structure made of nodes (which

are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types

of relations (Social network, 2007). With the rapid growth of people who use or

have access to the Internet, social networking websites are a must for the Internet

community to stay in touch with each other. Social networking web sites help people

keep in touch with old friends, make new friends, distribute new data or product, and

many more aspects of our everyday lives.

The first official social networking web site was Classmates.com which was founded

in 1995 (Social Network, 2007). What followed was a slow but steady growth in

numbers of social networking websites to the overwhelming number of sites we have

today. The reason that social networking websites work so well is that, like their

inception, they start of small and then grow exponentially. The site starts off with a

few people who then tell their friends about the site, then those friends tell their

friends about the site and soon the site is a huge database of users connected by

friends, acquaintances, or just random people. The web sites are made to allow

users to create a "profile" describing themselves and to exchange public or private

messages and list other users or groups they are connected to in some way. (Social

Network 2007).

Most social networking websites are often designed to fit a certain type of

community such as the college community being mirrored by Facebook.com or a

music/party community mirrored by MySpace.com. With the rapid growth of social

networking web sites and their global scale usage, whatever one feels concerning

social networking web sites is irrelevant because social networking web sites are on

a popularity rise and are here to stay.


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The social networking sites are gaining a lot of popularity these days with almost all

of the educated youth using one or the other such site. These have played a crucial

role in bridging boundaries and crossing the seas and enabling them to

communicate on a common platform. It has become a popular and a potential mean

for them to stay friends with the existing ones and to grow up their social circle at

least in terms of acquaintances.

The question regarding the safety, privacy and the legal issues have been cropping

up all this time. Through this research we try to find out the impact of these

networking sites on the personal and professional lives of people using them. It is a

very subjective question to answer and is very opinion based and the same is

reflected in the research methodology adopted by us.

The report is initiated with the definition of the objective followed with the research

methodology used along with the research design, sample size, methods used for

the purpose of conducting survey. It also incorporates the sampling frame and the

data collection procedure.

Subsequent to this is the Introduction to the networking sites along with a brief

description of the most popular sites. Then the issues of concern which have comeup along the way in all these years since these sites gained popularity are

discussed. The various issues and concerns of the respondents are also

incorporated there. The next part of the research has the literature surveys which are

the articles we took up from the published reports. We then analyzed and interpreted

the data at length. The last part deals with the suggestions and recommendations

that the group has come up with after carefully analyzing and incorporating the

opinion of all concerned.


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CONTENT

S.NO. Title P.NO.

1. What is social networking 1

2. Definition of S.N.S 2

3. History 3

4. How does S.N.S works 7

5. Examples of SNS 9

6. Emerging trend in social networking 12

7. Why social networking 19

8. Utilization in business 23

9. Influence on life style 25

10. SNS in india 26

11. Issues S.N.S 26

12. Social networking and youngergeneration

30

13.Social networking site act on adolescences

and teenager

33

14. Advantage and disadvantage 36

15. Limitation 37

16. Conclusion 38

17. Suggestion 39


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WHAT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING?

A social networking service is anonline service, platform, or site that focuses on buildingand reflecting ofsocial networksorsocial relationsamong people, e.g., who share interestsand/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user(often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social networkservices areweb basedand provide means for users to interact over theinternet, such ase-mailandinstant messaging.Online communityservices are sometimes considered as a socialnetwork service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means anindividual-centered service whereasonline communityservices are group-centered. Socialnetworking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within theirindividual networks.

The main types of social networking services are those which contain category places (suchas former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods nowcombine many of these, withFacebookandTwitterwidely used worldwide,Nexopia(mostlyin Canada);Bebo,VKontakte,Hi5,Hyves(mostly in The Netherlands),Draugiem.lv(mostlyin Latvia),StudiVZ(mostly in Germany),iWiW(mostly in Hungary),Tuenti(mostly inSpain),Nasza-Klasa(mostly in Poland),Decayenne,Tagged,XING,BadooandSkyrockinparts of Europe;OrkutandHi5inSouth AmericaandCentral AmericaandFriendster,Mixi,Multiply,Orkut,Wretch,renrenandCyworldin Asia and the Pacific Islands andTwitter,Facebook,LinkedInandOrkutare very popular in India.

There have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entriesof friends and interests (see theFOAFstandard and theOpen Source Initiative).

Although some of the largest social networks were founded on the notion of digitizing real

world connections, many networks focus on categories from books and music to non-profit

business to motherhood as ways to provide both services and community to individuals with

shared interests.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_relationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_relationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_relationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_basedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_basedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_basedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaginghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaginghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaginghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexopiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexopiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexopiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkontaktehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkontaktehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkontaktehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draugiem.lvhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draugiem.lvhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draugiem.lvhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studivzhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studivzhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studivzhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWiWhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWiWhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWiWhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuentihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuentihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuentihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasza-klasa.plhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasza-klasa.plhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasza-klasa.plhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decayennehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decayennehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decayennehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taggedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taggedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taggedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XINGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XINGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XINGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badoohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badoohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badoohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyrockhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyrockhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyrockhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendsterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendsterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendsterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiply_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiply_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wretch_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wretch_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wretch_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renrenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renrenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renrenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyworldhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyworldhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyworldhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedInhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedInhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedInhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOAF_%28software%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOAF_%28software%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOAF_%28software%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Initiativehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Initiativehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Initiativehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Initiativehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOAF_%28software%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedInhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyworldhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renrenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wretch_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiply_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendsterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkuthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyrockhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badoohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XINGhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taggedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decayennehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasza-klasa.plhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuentihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWiWhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studivzhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draugiem.lvhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5_%28website%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vkontaktehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexopiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaginghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_basedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_relationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_service


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SOCIAL NETWORK SITES (SNS): A DEFINITION

We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to:

(1) Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system,

(2) Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and

(3) View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the

system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to

site.

While we use the term "social network site" to describe this phenomenon, the term

"social networking sites" also appears in public discourse, and the two terms are

often used interchangeably. "Networking" emphasizes relationship initiation, often

between strangers. While networking is possible on these sites, it is not the primary

practice on many of them, nor is it what differentiates them from other forms of

computer-mediated communication (CMC).

What makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet

strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social

networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not

otherwise be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently

between "latent ties" (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some offline connection. On

many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to

meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are

already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social

network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them "social network

sites."


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A History of Social Network Sites

The Early Years

According to the definition above, the first recognizable social network site launched in

1997. SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and, beginning

in 1998, surf the Friends lists. Each of these features existed in some form before

SixDegrees, of course. Profiles existed on most major dating sites and many community

sites. AIM and ICQ buddy lists supported lists of Friends, although those Friends were

not visible to others. Classmates.com allowed people to affiliate with their high school or

college and surf the network for others who were also affiliated, but users could not

create profiles or list Friends until years later. SixDegrees was the first to combine these

features.SixDegrees promoted itself as a tool to help people connect with and send

messages to others. While SixDegrees attracted millions of users, it failed to become a

sustainable business and, in 2000, the service closed. Looking back, its founder believes

that SixDegrees was simply ahead of its time .While people were already flocking to the

Internet, most did not have extended networks of friends who were online. Early

adopters complained that there was little to do after accepting Friend requests, and

most users were not interested in meeting strangers. From 1997 to 2001, a number of

community tools began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly

articulated Friends. AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente allowed users to create

personal, professional, and dating profilesusers could identify Friends on their

personal profiles without seeking approval for those connections . Likewise, shortly

after its launch in 1999, LiveJournal listed one-directional connections on user pages.

LiveJournal's creator suspects that he fashioned these Friends after instant messaging

buddy listson LiveJournal, people mark others as Friends to follow their journals

and manage privacy settings. The next wave of SNSs began when Ryze.com was

launched in 2001 to help people leverage their business networks. Ryze's founder

reports that he first introduced the site to his friendsprimarily members of the San

Francisco business and technology community, including the entrepreneurs and

investors behind many future SNSs . In particular, the people behind Ryze, Tribe.net,

LinkedIn, and Friendster were tightly entwined personally and professionally. They


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believed that they could support each other without competing . In the end, Ryze never

acquired mass popularity, Tribe.net grew to attract a passionate niche user base,

LinkedIn became a powerful business service, and Friendster became the most

significant, if only as "one of the biggest disappointments in Internet history"


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Figure 1. Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNSs and dateswhen community sites re-launched with SNS features


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HOW DOES SNS WORK

While SNSs have implemented a wide variety of technical features, their backbone

consists of visible profiles that display an articulated list of Friends who are alsousers of the system. Profiles are unique pages where one can type oneself into

being. After joining an SNS, an individual is asked to fill out forms containing a series

of questions. The profile is generated using the answers to these questions, which

typically include descriptors such as age, location, interests, and an "about me"

section. Most sites also encourage users to upload a profile photo. Some sites allow

users to enhance their profiles by adding multimedia content or modifying their

profile's look and feel. Others, such as Facebook, allow users to add modules("Applications") that enhance their profile.

The visibility of a profile varies by site and according to user discretion. By default,

profiles on Orkut or hi5.com are crawled by search engines, making them visible to

anyone, regardless of whether or not the viewer has an account. Alternatively, sites

like MySpace allow users to choose whether they want their profile to be public or

"Friends only." Facebook takes a different approachby default, users who are part

of the same "network" can view each other's profiles, unless a profile owner has

decided to deny permission to those in their network. Structural variations around

visibility and access are one of the primary ways that SNSs differentiate themselves

from each other.

After joining a social network site, users are prompted to identify others in the system

with whom they have a relationship. The label for these relationships differs

depending on the site popular terms include "Friends," "Contacts," and "Fans." MostSNSs require bi-directional confirmation for Friendship, but some do not. These one-

directional ties are sometimes labelled as "Fans" or "Followers," but many sites call

these Friends as well. The term "Friends" can be misleading, because the

connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday vernacular sense,

and the reasons people connect are varied .The public display of connections is a

crucial component of SNSs. The Friends list contains links to each Friend's profile,

enabling viewers to traverse the network graph by clicking through the Friends lists.On most sites, the list of Friends is visible to anyone who is permitted to view the

profile, although there are exceptions.


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Most SNSs also provide a mechanism for users to leave messages on their Friends'

profiles. This feature typically involves leaving "comments," although sites employ

various labels for this feature. In addition, SNSs often have a private messaging

feature similar to webmail. While both private messages and comments are popular

on most of the major SNSs, they are not universally available.Beyond profiles,

Friends, comments, and private messaging, SNSs vary greatly in their features and

user base. Some have photo-sharing or video-sharing capabilities; others have built-

in blogging and instant messaging technology. There are mobile-specific SNSs (e.g.,

Dodgeball), but some web-based SNSs also support limited mobile interactions (e.g.,

Facebook, MySpace, and Cyworld). Many SNSs target people from specific

geographical regions or linguistic groups, although this does not always determine

the site's constituency. Orkut, for example, was launched in the United States with

an English-only interface, but Portuguese-speaking Brazilians quickly became the

dominant user group. Some sites are designed with specific ethnic, religious, sexual

orientation, political, or other identity-driven categories in mind. There are even

SNSs for dogs (Dogster) and cats (Catster), although their owners must manage

their profiles.While SNSs are often designed to be widely accessible, many attract

homogeneous populations initially, so it is not uncommon to find groups using sites

to segregate themselves by nationality, age, educational level, or other factors that

typically segment society, even if that was not the intention of the designers.


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EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITESWWW.ORKUT.COMOrkut is an Internet social network service run by Google and named after itscreator, Google employeeOrkut Bykkkten. It claims to be designed to help users

meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Similar to Facebook,

Friendster and MySpace, Orkut goes a step further by permitting the creation of

easy-to-set-up simple forums (called "communities") of users. Since October2006,

Orkut has permitted users to create accounts without an invitation.

Orkut is the most visited website in Brazil, being more visited than Google Brazil,

number 2 on the list. In total visits, Google is probably still more popular since it

appears as the second (the Brazilian version) and seventh most visited site (the

international version).

The initial target market for orkut was the United States, but the majority of its users

are in Brazil. In fact, as of November 2007, 62.9% of the traffic comes from Brazil,followed by 19.2% from India. In December 2007, Google dropped orkut from thedrop-down menu of its international homepage.

WWW.FACEBOOK.COMFacebook is another example of social networking site. Developed by sophomoreMark Zuckerberg of Harvard University in 2004, Facebook.com was originally

TheFacebook.com (Facebook, 2007). Purchasing the domain name of

Facebook.com in August of 2005 for $200,000 the site was originally developed for

college and university students as a way to connect with each other (Facebook,

2007). Hosting the most members for a college based social networking site,

Facebook.com is also the number one site for uploading pictures, boasting several

million uploads daily. Since its inception, Facebook.com has now been opened to

anyone with a valid email address and offers its members options of joining the

millions of networks of people with similar interests. It is said that 80% of

Facebook.com users check their account daily and that 93% of Facebook.com users
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut_B%C3%BCy%C3%BCkk%C3%B6ktenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut_B%C3%BCy%C3%BCkk%C3%B6ktenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut_B%C3%BCy%C3%BCkk%C3%B6ktenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendsterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpacehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octoberhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octoberhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forumhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpacehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendsterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut_B%C3%BCy%C3%BCkk%C3%B6ktenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google


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check their account at least monthly (Facebook, 2007) Facebook.com generates its

revenue from advertisement since it boasts a huge number of registered users.

WWW.MYSPACE.COMMySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submittednetwork of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos

internationally. It is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California,USA, where it shares

an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media; in turn, the owner

of Fox Interactive and therefore MySpace, News Corporation, is headquartered in

New York City.

According to Alexa Internet, MySpace is currently the world's sixth most popular

English-language website and the sixth most popular website in any language, and

the third most popular website in the United States, though it has topped the chart on

various weeks. The service has gradually gained more popularity than similar

websites to achieve nearly 80 percent of visits to online social networking websites.

The company employs 300 staff and does not disclose revenues or profits separately

from News Corporation. With the 100 millionth account being created on August 9,

2006, in the Netherlands and a news story claiming 106 million accounts on

September 8, 2006, the site reportedly attracts new registrations at a rate of 230,000

per day. As ofDecember 18, 2007, there are over 300 million accounts.

WWW.HI5.COMHi5 is a social networking website, which, throughout 2007, was one of the 25 mostvisited sites on the web. The company was founded in 2002 by Ramu Yalamanchi

who is also the current CEO. As of December 2007, hi5 had over 98 million

members.In hi5, users create anonlineprofile in order to show information such as

interests, age and hometown and upload user pictures where users can post

comments. hi5 also allows the user to create personal photo albums and set up a

music player in the profile. Users can also send friend requests via e-mail to other
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Hillshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Interactive_Mediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Cityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_9http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_18http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networkinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramu_Yalamanchihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEOhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onlinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onlinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onlinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uploadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uploadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uploadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onlinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEOhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramu_Yalamanchihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networkinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_18http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_9http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Cityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Interactive_Mediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Hillshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service


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users. When a person receives a friend request, he or she may accept or decline it,

or block the user altogether. If the user accepts another user as a friend, the two will

be connected directly or in the 1st degree. The user will then appear on the person's

friend list and vice-versa. Some users opt to make their profiles available for

everyone on hi5 to view. Other users exercise the option to make their profile

viewable only to those people who are in their network. The network of friends

consists of a user's direct friends (1st degree), the friends of those direct friends (2nd

degree) and the friends of the friends of direct friends (3rd degree).


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Emerging Trends in Social Networking:

The Integration of Social Networks

Social networking sites are a growing phenomenon partlydue to the way in which they increase the efficiency ofusers communication. Posted for the masses are memberspersonal profiles that may take the form of text, images, andmusic for other members to enjoy, comment on, and share.Users can be social at the time of their choosing,independent of the initiating communicator. The one-on-onecommunication of email, text messaging, and phone is

outpaced considerably by social networking platforms.

Friend Connect hopes to become the product that anchors all major social networkingwebsites together.

Internet conglomerate Google has staked its claim to a prime piece of social networking realestate with the creation of Google Friend Connect. Google Friend Connect intends to doexactly what their name statesconnect. Friend Connect aims to bring the built-infunctionality of interactive social websites to any website owner. Friend Connect promises tobe more than simply another flat social networking site; Google designed Friend Connect as aforum that allows for any single website to become a hub for social networking or, at theleast, to utilize features and applications that were previously exclusive only to typical socialnetworking sites already in existence. Additionally, Friend Connect hopes to become theproduct that anchors all major social networking websites together.

Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn are distinct entities in and of themselves. Userscan interact with other users on each specific websitecreating the need for separate names,passwords, and accounts. Social networking sites have varying degrees of diversity amongtheir demographic. Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix, acompany that measures internet audiences for advertisers, has stated that MySpace has thebroadest appeal across age ranges, Facebook has created a niche among the college crowd,Friendster attracts a higher percentage of adults, and Xanga is most popular among younger

teens. LinkedIn is geared towards professionals, seeking to forge personal and professionalconnections. With Friend Connect, Google hopes to interconnect the preexistent socialnetworking websites while introducing social networking aspects to other less traditionalsocial sites.

Users of existing social networking sites may find it refreshing to sneak outside of the walledgarden created by the early oligopoly of the social networking industry. With Google FriendConnect, they will be able to check out photos on Facebook, comment on a friends LinkedInupdates, check out a YouTube video, and read their pals latest MySpace blogwith the useof only one username and password, under one account.

Web site owners, as well, may find Friend Connect useful. By simply adding a snippet ofHTML code into their website, they can gain features such as bulletins, blogs, messageposting, video sharing, and more. Musicians can share music through applications such asiLike, and freelancers can blog to their friends on multiple sites at one time.


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According to Google, the Google Friend Connect will allow website owners to insert socialfeatures to make any app, any site, any friends, and a reality. A May 12th, 2008 press releaseannouncing the preview of Google Friend Connect states that visitors of any site usingGoogle Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends.

So how does an application such as Google Friend Connectbreak down barriers and engage users? It encourages users tointeract across the internet, and not just on one specificwebsite or another. It can drive up traffic across the internet,and increase actual interaction with website coders doinglittle work on their part. Google Friend Connect strives toshy away from the static version of the existing socialnetworking sites.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.com thinks that regardless

of the Google Friend product, users will eventually gravitatetoward the one site that they like the best. So how will Google Friend be effective in theirlong-term goals?

One way is to bring on partners. MySpace, for example, partners with Twitter, eBay, Yahoo,and PhotoBucket. Facebook is partnered with Digg, among others. Google has partnered withsmaller social networks like Plaxo and orkut, and have incorporated Google Talk, as wellbut they have yet to announce any impressive partners for the Google Friend Connectproduct. Google has launched not only Google Friend Connect but also Data Availability andFacebook Connectall products aimed to securely send personal data to third partyapplications.

Google formally introduced Friend Connect to the world on May 12th with a preview. Theofficial website (www.google.com/friendconnect) is still in preview mode but lists fiveexample sites that employ Google Friend Connect gadgets. An educational Bible quiz site,indeed rock band My First Earthquakes site, musician Ingrid Michelsons site, a guacamolecooking site, and a filmmakers site are functioning examples of the Google Friend Connecttools that can integrate users across the web.

Integration of sites over the World Wide Web is one of the main goalsand Google promisesa lot more to websites. Whether Google will succeed with its objectives remains to be seen.

Typically, users are wary of websites that store personal data or give their information tothird-party companies. While Google promises that Friend Connect users are in charge ofwhat is shared, and that Google does not permanently store any user data, the layman maystill be suspicious. Although Friend Connect only reads a very small amount of data from onesocial networking site to the nextit may still enough to make some new users nervous.

However, veterans of sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and the like, are already accustomedto the concept. Facebook has a history of using applications to appeal to users whilesimultaneously incorporating third-party websites. MySpace just recently started doing thesame. Social networking sites rely on traffic and advertising for their revenueso integration

of them might be key. MySpace usersthe core demographic being the high school throughtwentysomething crowdare used to subtle advertising along the interface. With the additionof applications and the future possibility of incorporating Google Friend Connect, MySpaceusers may be exposed to worlds beyond the realm of their space.
http://www.google.com/friendconnecthttp://www.google.com/friendconnecthttp://www.google.com/friendconnect


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While Google has virtually monopolized the world of online searching, Facebook andMySpace are giants in the world of social networking. Facebooks value is estimated on ahigh end at 15 Billion, based on Microsofts investment $240 million for a 1.6 percent stakein it. MySpace was sold to Rupert Murdochs News Corporation for $580 million in 2006 butis now estimated to have a value of about $6 billion, depending on who you ask and various

valuation methods. LinkedIn, with its 20 million users is valued at close to $1 billion, havingrecently raised 53 million in funding.

Google does own social networking sitesthe aforementioned Plaxo and orkutand the ideaof developing a unique approach is not a new concept to Google. In August of 2008, Googlesigned a deal with MySpace for advertising and to be MySpaces official search engine. Withthe upcoming introduction of products like Facebook Connect and Google Connect, theWorld Wide Webs social networks will become increasingly integrated. As the increase inpopularity of social networking is on a constant rise ,new uses for the technology areconstantly being observed.

At the forefront of emerging trends in social networking sites is the concept of"real time"and "location based." Real time allows users to contribute content, which is then broadcastedas it is being uploaded - the concept is similar to live television broadcasts. Twitter set thetrend for "real time" services, where users can broadcast to the world what they are doing, orwhat is on their minds within a 140 character limit. Facebookfollowed suit with their "LiveFeed" where users' activities are streamed as soon as it happens. While Twitter focuses onwords, Clixtr, another real time service, focuses on group photo sharing where users canupdate their photo streams with photos while at an event. Friends and nearby users cancontribute their own photos and comments to that event stream, thus contributing to the "realtime" aspect of broadcasting photos and comments as it is being uploaded. In the location

based social networking space, foursquare gained popularity as it allowed for users to "check-in" to places that they are frequenting at that moment. Gowalla is another such service whichfunctions in much the same way that Foursquare does, leveraging the GPS in phones to createa location based user experience. Clixtr, though in the real time space, is also a location basedsocial networking site since events created by users are automatically geo-tagged, and userscan view events occurring nearby through the Clixtr iPhone app. Recently, Yelp announcedits entrance into the location based social networking space through check-ins with theirmobile app; whether or not this becomes detrimental to Foursquare or Gowalla is yet to beseen as it is still considered a new space in the internet technology industry. One popular usefor this new technology is social networking between businesses. Companies have found thatsocial networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great ways to build their brand

image. According to Jody Nimetz, author of Marketing Jive, there are five major uses forbusinesses and social media: to create brand awareness, as an online reputation managementtool, for recruiting, to learn about new technologies and competitors, and as a lead gen tool tointercept potential prospects., These companies are able to drive traffic to their own onlinesites while encouraging their consumers and clients to have discussions on how to improve orchange products or services.

One other use that is being discussed is the use of Social Networks in the Sciencecommunities. (Julia Porter Liebeskind et) . have published a study on how NewBiotechnology Firms are using social networking sites to share exchanges in scientific

knowledge. They state in their study that by sharing information and knowledge with oneanother, they are able "increase both their learning and their flexibility in ways that would notbe possible within a self-contained hierarchical organization." Social networking is allowingscientific groups to expand their knowledge base and share ideas, and without these newmeans of communicating their theories might become "isolated and irrelevant".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_timehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clixtrhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foursquare_(service)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gowallahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp,_Inc.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp,_Inc.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gowallahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foursquare_(service)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clixtrhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_time


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Social networks are also being used by teachers and students as a communication tool.Because many students are already using a wide-range of social networking sites, teachershave begun to familiarize themselves with this trend and are now using it to their advantage.Teachers and professors are doing everything from creating chat-room forums and groups toextend classroom discussion to posting assignments, tests and quizzes, to assisting with

homework outside of the classroom setting. Social networks are also being used to fosterteacher-parent communication. These sites make it possible and more convenient for parentsto ask questions and voice concerns without having to meet face-to-face.


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Why Social Networking?Through social networking, people can use networks of online friends and groupmemberships to keep in touch with current friends, reconnect with old friends orcreate reallife friendships through similar interests or groups. Besides establishing

important social relationships, social networking members can share their interests

with other likeminded members by joining groups and forums. Some networking

can also help members find a job or establish business contacts.Most social networking websites also offer additional features. In addition to blogs

and forums, members can express themselves by designing their profile page to

reflect their personality. The most popular extra features include music and video

sections. Members can read bios of their favorite music artists from the artist's profile

page as well as listen to their favorite songs and watch music videos. The video

section can include everything from membergenerated videos from hundreds of

subjects to TV clips and movie trailers.

What to Look For in Social Networking?The phenomenon of online social networkingmade extremely popular by

MySpace.com, has evolved to include more than the teenage stereotype looking to

expand his/her network of online friends. People of all ages and backgrounds have

discovered that they can enrich their lives through the contacts they make on a

social networking website.Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to evaluate

Social Networking websites.

ProfilesThe heart and soul of social networking sites are users personal profiles.

Its like their own Internet sanctuary, a place where they can express their

thoughts and feelings, post photographs and show off their network of

friends. The most popular social network websites put a strong emphasis on

the users profile, making it easy to use yet still reflective of the users

personality.
http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/myspace-review.htmlhttp://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/myspace-review.htmlhttp://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/myspace-review.html


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SecurityThe Internet can be a dangerous place to post personal information. All

social networks should provide the ability to set profiles to private in some

way or another. Additionally they should have the ability to report and blockusers.

Networking FeaturesA good social network goes above and beyond just allowing users to post

profiles and update pictures. Additional features should include music

sections, video uploads, groups and more.

SearchThe object of a social network is to find friends and expand relationships.

Top social networking websites allows members to search for other

members in a safe and easy to use environment. Common search functions

include search by name, city, school and email address.

Help/SupportMost social network sites are self-explanatory. However, in the off-chance a

user needs help there needs to be some way to contact the webmaster or

answers in an FAQs section.

Legitimate Friend FocusThe growing trend for social networks is to communicate and keep in touch

with people you already know. No one wants to be inundated with

unsolicited spam friend requests. The best social network sites keep

profiles and search options private enough that the only people that can find

you are the ones actually looking for users in their own school or

neighborhood networks. Even with a completely public profile, users

shouldnt be bothered with more than a couple of unsolicited comments or

messages.


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Rank #1 #2 #3 #4

ExcellentVery

GoodGoodFair

Poor

Facebook MySpace hi5 Orkut

Overall Rating

Profiles

Security

Networking

Features

Search

Help/Support

Legitimate

Friend Focus

Minimum Age to

Join13 14 13 18

Percentage of

users Under 18 36 33 24 4

International

Community

Multilingual

Multilingual

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Free

Profile or

(WYSIWYG)

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Customize Code

(HTML or CSS)

Personalized URL

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Blog/Journal

Applications

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Block Users

Report Spam

Report Abuse

Safety Tips

ChatRooms

Instant

Messaging

Tags

Bulletins

Groups

Groups (Numberof Categories)

23 34 22 28

Create a Group

Forums

Mail

Grab/Copy/Share

Photos

Mobile

Music

Music Videos

Commercial

Videos

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Games

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By Name

By Email Address

By School

By City/ Zip Code

By Interests

By Keyword

Browse Without

Membership

eMail Support

FAQ


25/41


26/41

websites people can get advice from experts, gain knowledge of product through

others who have used it, and get reviews on nearly anything that is mass produced

today. This in turn is also great for businesses. With all this information out there

concerning products its easy for a company to look through it and see what

customers want and for how much. This in turn leads to better products being made

to suit the customers needs and wants.


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Influence of networking sites on lifestyle:

Social networking sites have some or the other sort of influence on the li festyle of the

people. While some people did not feel that it influences the lifestyle as they use

these networking sites just for connecting with friends and did not feel its influence

on their lifestyle.

On the other hand, those who feel that it has some influence on their lifestyle had a

lot to share. The responses suggest that some people have got addicted to the

networking sites and use them more often and as such their life is completely

influenced by these. People find it trendy to use these networking sites and being a

member of the sites is considered trendy and in vogue thing. Some people surf these

sites to interact with people with similar preferences and it helps in their decision-

making ability. They take the views and suggestions of the people before taking any

such decisions and feel quite comfortable with it. Some people get knowledge about

latest trends in fashion, electronic gadgets etc.The most staggering influence of

these networking sites for some people is the use of abbreviated words l ike d for

the and likewise. They tend to use the similar words in their day to day life and even

in official communication and often have suffered due to this. For students, it often

comes across during exams.

Some people use abusive words to vent out their feelings on these networking sites

and the same has been seen in their personal life of late. Certain people often use

communities to dishonour their teachers and bosses or use bad-mouthing words for

even celebrities and sports stars.


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SNS IN INDIA :In all the social networking phenomenon in India is small compared to the US (Indian socialnetworking websites today claim a user base of around 3 million registered users) while

MySpace, which has 106 million users and Orkut which has 67 million have far greaternumbers. Clearly, Indian firms have a lot of work ahead of them in order to catch up.However, Siddhartha Roy, CEO, BigAdda, says optimistically: We are early on the curve.Alok Mittal, MD, Canaan Partners, a venture capital firm, says: When you put that incontext, Indian social networking websites are in their infancy. The break-even point islonger, but once they attain a critical mass of 40 million users, then VC firms will startinvesting in them.

Navin Mittal, CEO, fropper.com, says: With the Indian Internet user-base negligiblecompared to the US or China, these are very early days. The owner of the blogTrak.indoesa great job of explaining the benefits of social networking for India and what it means for

consumers and businesses.

Issues

On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns about users giving outtoo much personal information and the threat ofsexual predators. Users of these services alsoneed to be aware ofdata theftorviruses. However, large services, such asMySpaceandNetlog, often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents

In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personalinformation in the hands of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a profile tobe produced on an individual's behavior on which decisions, detrimental to an individual,may be taken.

Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of datainformation that was altered orremoved by the user may in fact be retained and/or passed to 3rd parties. This danger washighlighted when the controversial social networking siteQuechupharvested e-mailaddresses from users' e-mail accounts for use in aspammingoperation.

In medical and scientific research, asking subjects for information about their behaviors isnormally strictly scrutinized byinstitutional review boards, for example, to ensure thatadolescents and their parents haveinformed consent. It is not clear whether the same rulesapply to researchers who collect data from social networking sites. These sites often contain agreat deal of data that is hard to obtain via traditional means. Even though the data are public,republishing it in a research paper might be consideredinvasion of privacy.

Privacy on social networking sites can be undermined by many factors. For example, usersmay disclose personal information, sites may not take adequate steps to protect user privacy,and third parties frequently use information posted on social networks for a variety ofpurposes. "For the Next generation, social networking sites have become the preferred forumfor social interactions, from posturing and role playing to simply sounding off. However,because such forums are relatively easy to access, posted content can be reviewed by anyonewith an interest in the users' personal information".
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Following plans by the UK government to monitor traffic on social networks schemes similartoE-mail jamminghave been proposed for networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Thesewould involve "friending" and "following" large numbers of random people to thwartattempts at network analysis.

There has been a trend for social networking sites to send out only 'positive' notifications tousers. For example sites such as Bebo, Facebook, and Myspace will not send notifications tousers when they are removed from a person's friends list. Similarly Bebo will send out anotification if a user is moved to the top of another user's friends list but no notification issent if they are moved down the list.

This allows users to purge undesirables from their list extremely easily and often withoutconfrontation since a user will rarely notice if one person disappears from their friends list. Italso enforces the general positive atmosphere of the website without drawing attention tounpleasant happenings such as friends falling out, rejection and failed relationships.

Many social networking services, such as Facebook, provide the user with a choice of whocan view their profile. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from accessing their information.Parents who want to access their child's MySpace or Facebook account have become a bigproblem for teenagers who do not want their profile seen by their parents. By making theirprofile private, teens can select who may see their page, allowing only people added as"friends" to view their profile and preventing unwanted viewing of the profile by parents.Teens are constantly trying to create a structural barrier between their private life and theirparents.

To information on a certain social networking service account, the social networking sitesrequire you tologinor provide apassword. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from adding,changing, or removing personal information, pictures, and/or other data.

The relative freedom afforded by social networking services has caused concern regardingthe potential of its misuse by individual patrons. In October 2006, a fakeMyspaceprofilecreated in the name of Josh Evans by Lori Janine Drew led to the suicide ofMegan Meier.The event incited global concern regarding the use of social networking services for bullyingpurposes

In July 2008, a Briton,Grant Raphael, was ordered to pay a total of GBP 22,000 (aboutUSD $44,000) for libel and breach of privacy. Raphael had posted a fake page onFacebook

purporting to be that of a former school friend Matthew Firsht, with whom Raphael had fallenout in 2000. The page falsely claimed that Firsht was homosexual and that he was dishonest.

At the same time, genuine use of social networking services has been treated with suspicionon the ground of the services' misuse. In September 2008, the profile of Australian Facebookuser Elmo Keep was banned by the site's administrators on the grounds that it violated thesite's terms of use. Keep is one of several users of Facebook who were banned from the siteon the presumption that their names aren't real, as they bear resemblance the names ofcharacters like Sesame Street's Elmo.

Citizens and governments have been concerned by a misuse by child and teenagers of social

networking services, particularly in relation to online sexual predators. A certain number ofactions have been engaged by governments to better understand the problem and find somesolutions. A 2008 panel concluded thattechnological fixessuch as age verification and scansare relatively ineffective means of apprehending online predators. In May 2010, achildpornographysocial networking site with hundreds of members was dismantled by law
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enforcement. It was deemed "the largest crimes against children case brought anywhere byanyone."

Main article:Troll (Internet)

A common misuse of social networking sites such asFacebookis that it is occasionally usedto emotionally abuse individuals. Such actions are often referred to as trolling. It is not rarefor confrontations in the real world to be translated online. [citation needed] Trolling can occur inmany different forms, such as (but not limited to) defacement of deceased person(s) tributepages, name calling, playing online pranks on volatile individuals andcontroversialcomments with the intention to cause anger and cause arguments. Trolling is not to beconfused withcyber-bullying.

Online bullying (aka "Cyber-bullying") is a relatively common occurrence and it can oftenresult in emotional trauma for the victim. Depending on the networking outlet, up to 39% ofusers admit to being cyber-bullied.Danah Boyd, a researcher of social networks quotes ateenager in her article, Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites. The teenager expressesfrustration towards networking sites like MySpace because it causes drama and too muchemotional stress. There are not many limitations as to what individuals can post when online.Inherently individuals are given the power to post offensive remarks or pictures that couldpotentially cause a great amount of emotional pain for another individual.

Interpersonal communication has been a growing issue as more and more people have turnedto social networking as a means of communication."Benniger (1987) describes how massmedia has gradually replaced interpersonal communication as a socializing force. Further,social networking sites have become popular sites for youth culture to explore themselves,

relationships, and share cultural artifacts".A Privacy ParadoxMany teens and socialnetworking users may be harming their interpersonal communication by using sites such asFacebook and MySpace. Stated by Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford UniversityNeuroscientist, "My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state ofsmall children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a smallattention span and who live for the moment."

Number of US social network patent applications published per year and patents issued per

year

There has been rapid growth in the number of US patent applications that cover newtechnologies related to social networking. The number of published applications has beengrowing rapidly since 2003. There are now over 3500 published applications. As many as7000 applications may be currently on file including those that haven't been published yet.
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