The Top Social Networking Services

In today’s world, it is an almost inconceivable thought to live without the solace of social networking sites. That is not surprising as almost all urban youngsters are hooked-on on one or more social networking service – depending on what their group of friends use.

Over the past few years, social networking has been on the rise, and that too rapidly. In actuality, the purpose of a social network service is to focus on building and reflecting social networks and social relations among people, which is essentially done via the representation of a user through his or her profile.

Social network services also help to establish an online community – sometimes consisting entirely of total strangers unbeknown to one another. These social network services provide modes of interaction between one another through the Internet using instant messages, forums or e-mails.

Inevitably, the mushrooming of social network services has led to a direct impact to the lives of youths. They see it as an avenue to stray beyond the social borders that have been imposed on them by either the society or their parents, for social network services are basically devoid of any hard and fast rules.

Demographers have come about the conclusion that there is still more to come from social network services. Areas that can still be tapped into include using social network services to do social good, such as hosting online fundraisers for earthquake hit regions.

Here, I have featured five of the top social network services in the world. As it is, every few years, we would witness the emergence of a new social service whilst older ones would die. Therefore, this list could look very much different in a couple of year’s time.

Facebook

This is unquestionably the leading social network service that is around in the world for the time being. Boasting around 350 million users, Facebook has been in operation since 2006. Interestingly, the concept and name of Facebook derives from the colloquial name of books that are given to undergraduates at the start of their terms in the US to get to know one another better.

MySpace

Once the premier social network service, MySpace was overtaken by Facebook in 2008. It is owned by Fox Interactive Media and it copied the Friendster concept. After mimicking its more prominent features, MySpace came to being in the year 2003. MySpace has some unique features such as a TV, news stream and forums. It is still very much popular in the US.

Twitter

Twitter differs from its fellow social networking services – it is a microblogging service with a maximum cap of 140 characters. These messages are known as ‘tweets’. Twitter was created in 2006 and it has been popularly referred to as the ‘SMS of the Internet’. Users can follow influential figures as well as their friends, and also send out their own ‘tweets’ to let the world know what they are up to.

Hi5

This is not the most popular of social network services, but it has a commendable user base of over 60 million people since its inception since 2003. There isn’t much to talk about Hi5, as it functions on basically the same concept as Facebook and MySpace. Users can upload pictures, host a music player on their site and also comment on their friends’ profiles.

Friendster

Initially one of the leading social network services, Friendster has seen its stock fall as it has failed to keep up with the pace of its competitors. Although it is the fifth most popular social network service currently, it is expected to fall even lower, with it presently depending heavily on traffic from Asia. However, unlike Facebook, users can heavily customise their Friendster profiles.

So, which is your preferred destination for social networking? Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.