Social Networking is the next big thing in the world of Internet. This is a human network where you can reach a wider audience and larger base of customers that you will be targeting. Social network comprises of human being as their main actors and this makes it an ideal place where you can publicize your blog and other products.
A social networking site is the phrase used to describe any Web site that enables users to create public profiles within that Web site and form relationships with other users of the same Web site who access their profile. Social networking sites can be used to describe community-based Web sites, online discussions forums, chat rooms and other social spaces online.
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 member–generated videos from hundreds of subjects to TV clips and movie trailers.
Google Plus, abbreviated as G+ is a social networking service operated by Google Inc. The service launched on June 28, 2011 in an invite-only "field testing" phase. Finally this is the Google’s answer to the Facebook who has captured all the market in terms of social networking. Since I have an account of it and the least I can say that the site is designed in exceptionally manner where you can organize your contacts according to your wish. There is a concept of circles where you can promote your posts accordingly.
Facebook | World website Rank: 2 |
Facebook is a social network service and website launched in February 2004 that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. As of July 2010 Facebook has more than 500 million active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students and was initially meant for Harvard students. This site is no doubt the World’s #1 social networking website with user base more than 750 million. This makes up for little more than 10 per cent of the world’s population.
Twitter | World website Rank: 9 |
This is a micro blogging site that requires you to express yourself in the standard 140 characters. The site is simple as following the person or any community and let others follow you. You tweet to the world about almost any topic on the world. Twitter is the best tool for the bloggers who want to promote their blogs. Many of them have a dedicated account for this purpose only.
LinkedIn | World website Rank: 13 |
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site, co-founded by Reid Hoffman in December 2002 and launched in May 2003; it is mainly used for professional networking. As of August 4, 2011, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 120 million members, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide
MySpace | World website Rank: 87 |
MySpace, Inc. is a leading social entertainment destination powered by the passions of fans. Aimed at a Gen Y audience, MySpace drives social interaction by providing a highly personalized experience around entertainment and connecting people to the music, celebrities, TV, movies, and games that they love. According to comScore, MySpace was overtaken internationally by its main competitor, Facebook, in April 2008. Since then MySpace has declined steadily in spite of several drastic redesigns. On June 29, 2011, MySpace was sold to Specific Media for US$35 million plus a 5 percent stake in Specific Media.
Digg | World website Rank: 142 |
Digg is a social news website founded by Kevin Rose. Formerly, the site’s cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively, but as of Digg v4, the “bury” function has been removed. Digg’s popularity has prompted the creation of other social networking sites with story submission and voting systems.
Orkut | World website Rank: 108 |
Orkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. The service is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. The website is named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten. Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. As of July 2011, 58.1% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 32% and Japan with 2%.
Hi5 | World website Rank: 459 |
Hi5 is a social networking website. The company was founded in 2003 by Ramu Yalamanchi. But due to hi5’s shift in focus to social gaming, comScore reclassified hi5 as an online gaming site in early 2011. According to comScore, hi5 ranked as the 6th most trafficked online gaming site.
Badoo | World website Rank: 117 |
Badoo is a multi-lingual social networking website, managed out of a London headquarters, but owned by a company in Cyprus. The sites allows users to create profiles, send each other messages, and rate each other’s profile pictures at no cost, but charges fees for features which are designed to make the user’s profile more visible to other users, thereby increasing the opportunities to attract attention. Charging for these enhanced visibility features is the site’s primary business model.
Badoo includes a geographic proximity feature, which identifies users’ locations based on analysis of their network connection. This lets users know if there are people near to their current location who may wish to meet.
StumbleUpon | World website Rank: 107 |
StumbleUpon is a discovery engine (a form of web search engine) that finds the best of the web, recommended to each unique user. It allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles.
Ning | World website Rank: 273 |
The word "Ning" is Chinese for "peace", as explained by Gina Bianchini on the company blog. Ning competes with social sites like MySpace, Facebook and BigTent by appealing to people who want to create their own social networks around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data. The central feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific membership bases.
At its launch, Ning was a free-form platform for the development and hosting of open-source “social applications.” The source code for Ning applications was available to users, and the service made it easy for anyone to fork a Ning application, modify its PHP code and run it as their own. Applications included photo albums, blogging software, and many for sharing business reviews. In late September 2006, Ning narrowed its focus to offering a group website, a photos website, and a videos website for people to copy and use for any purpose.
NetLog | World website Rank: 291 |
Netlog (formerly known as Facebox and Bingbox) is a Belgian social networking website specifically targeted at the European youth demographic.
The site was founded in July 2003 in Ghent, Belgium, by Lorenz Bogaert and Toon Coppens. It has 70 million registered users across 25 languages. On Netlog, members can create their own web page, extend their social network, publish their music playlists, share videos, post blogs and join groups.
MeetUp | World website Rank: 474 |
Meetup.com (also called Meetup) is an online social networking portal that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world. Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest, such as politics, books, games, movies, health, pets, careers or hobbies. Users enter their ZIP code (or their city outside the United States) and the topic they want to meet about, and the website helps them arrange a place and time to meet.
This is a micro blogging site that requires you to express yourself in the standard 140 characters. The site is simple as following the person or any community and let others follow you. You tweet to the world about almost any topic on the world. Twitter is the best tool for the bloggers who want to promote their blogs. Many of them have a dedicated account for this purpose only.
LinkedIn | World website Rank: 13 |
LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site, co-founded by Reid Hoffman in December 2002 and launched in May 2003; it is mainly used for professional networking. As of August 4, 2011, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 120 million members, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide
MySpace | World website Rank: 87 |
MySpace, Inc. is a leading social entertainment destination powered by the passions of fans. Aimed at a Gen Y audience, MySpace drives social interaction by providing a highly personalized experience around entertainment and connecting people to the music, celebrities, TV, movies, and games that they love. According to comScore, MySpace was overtaken internationally by its main competitor, Facebook, in April 2008. Since then MySpace has declined steadily in spite of several drastic redesigns. On June 29, 2011, MySpace was sold to Specific Media for US$35 million plus a 5 percent stake in Specific Media.
Digg | World website Rank: 142 |
Digg is a social news website founded by Kevin Rose. Formerly, the site’s cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively, but as of Digg v4, the “bury” function has been removed. Digg’s popularity has prompted the creation of other social networking sites with story submission and voting systems.
Orkut | World website Rank: 108 |
Orkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. The service is designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. The website is named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten. Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebook and MySpace, it is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. As of July 2011, 58.1% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 32% and Japan with 2%.
Hi5 | World website Rank: 459 |
Hi5 is a social networking website. The company was founded in 2003 by Ramu Yalamanchi. But due to hi5’s shift in focus to social gaming, comScore reclassified hi5 as an online gaming site in early 2011. According to comScore, hi5 ranked as the 6th most trafficked online gaming site.
Badoo | World website Rank: 117 |
Badoo is a multi-lingual social networking website, managed out of a London headquarters, but owned by a company in Cyprus. The sites allows users to create profiles, send each other messages, and rate each other’s profile pictures at no cost, but charges fees for features which are designed to make the user’s profile more visible to other users, thereby increasing the opportunities to attract attention. Charging for these enhanced visibility features is the site’s primary business model.
Badoo includes a geographic proximity feature, which identifies users’ locations based on analysis of their network connection. This lets users know if there are people near to their current location who may wish to meet.
StumbleUpon | World website Rank: 107 |
StumbleUpon is a discovery engine (a form of web search engine) that finds the best of the web, recommended to each unique user. It allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos that are personalized to their tastes and interests using peer-sourcing and social-networking principles.
Ning | World website Rank: 273 |
The word "Ning" is Chinese for "peace", as explained by Gina Bianchini on the company blog. Ning competes with social sites like MySpace, Facebook and BigTent by appealing to people who want to create their own social networks around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data. The central feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific membership bases.
At its launch, Ning was a free-form platform for the development and hosting of open-source “social applications.” The source code for Ning applications was available to users, and the service made it easy for anyone to fork a Ning application, modify its PHP code and run it as their own. Applications included photo albums, blogging software, and many for sharing business reviews. In late September 2006, Ning narrowed its focus to offering a group website, a photos website, and a videos website for people to copy and use for any purpose.
NetLog | World website Rank: 291 |
Netlog (formerly known as Facebox and Bingbox) is a Belgian social networking website specifically targeted at the European youth demographic.
The site was founded in July 2003 in Ghent, Belgium, by Lorenz Bogaert and Toon Coppens. It has 70 million registered users across 25 languages. On Netlog, members can create their own web page, extend their social network, publish their music playlists, share videos, post blogs and join groups.
MeetUp | World website Rank: 474 |
Meetup.com (also called Meetup) is an online social networking portal that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world. Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest, such as politics, books, games, movies, health, pets, careers or hobbies. Users enter their ZIP code (or their city outside the United States) and the topic they want to meet about, and the website helps them arrange a place and time to meet.
