Social networking Web sites

By Monica Green/features@trcle.com

My parents are on Facebook. So is one of my bosses. Why is this so unusual?

Because they are old ... er than the “normal” Facebook user.

Of course, nowadays what constitutes a “normal” Facebook user? As members of the older generation join social networking Web sites, it seems the doors really are open to all.

Facebook, one of many social networking sites, was originally created for college and university students. When it was exclusive, I remember the excitement when my university was added to the list of schools allowed to join. Almost overnight two-thirds of our student body had joined.

Since MySpace joined the realm of online social networking, Facebook eventually opened its doors to all in order to compete with the free-for-all site. In time, the two have competed heavily for the most amount of users and the name of top social networking site. Because of that, they both have the same elements.

The main difference between the two is that on MySpace users can create custom pages with their own designs for backgrounds and everything. Facebook has yet to implement that customization.

Right now, MySpace seems to be winning in the perpetual back and forth battle for top site. As of early January, Facebook had more than 150 million registered users. Myspace, on the other hand, had more than 250 million users. It is also said to attract 230,000 new users a day. A day!

Though they might be the most popular, MySpace and Facebook are not the only social networking sites. There are numerous sites for those wishing to connect with others online. A quick Google search brings up 700 million hits on social networking sites.

Linkedin.com

A popular site for business professionals, LinkedIn has 30 million registered users from 150 different industries. Users on this site can have “connections,” or people they trust in business. Your LinkedIn profile almost serves as a résumé, listing previous employments and business details. Connections can leave testimonials about your work as well. Employers can also list job openings and search for potential candidates within the site.

Friendster

Friendster is said to be the first site to introduce online communities. It has more than 90 million users and receives 19 billion page views per month. A unique thing about Friendster is the Fan Profiles. They cover 40 different “entities,” such as singers, models, organizations, etc. This is something MySpace has available, but only to musicians.

Bebo

Bebo, which stands for “blog early, blog often,” is an international site that boasts 40 million users. Bebo is another version of what I call a Facebook copycat. Users create profiles where others can leave comments, and they add friends to beef up their profile. A cool unique item for Bebo is Bebo Authors, also known as Bebo Books, where authors can upload chapters of their books to be reviewed by peers. It has a similar version for music groups, a common feature among social networking sites.

Blogging

Ever want to get all your feelings out but just didn’t know how? Millions, probably billions across the world write everything they want online in a weblog. There are many, many blogging sites that serve as social networking sites as well. Livejournal has almost 20 millions bloggers. The majority of LJ bloggers fall into the 15-24 age range, and two-thirds are female. Famous LJ users include Bill Bradley, Elyse Sewell, Sterling James Keenan and many others. Xanga, another popular blogging site, has 40 million bloggers, among them Michael Moore.

Finding old classmates

One of my favorite things about online networking is being able to find old classmates and friends I’d otherwise never hear from again. Facebook and MySpace are my avenues for doing so, but sites are dedicated solely to finding old classmates. Reunion.com and Classmates.com are just two of the many school-oriented sites. Users can register on either with their high school and college information and instantly be connected with old classmates. Some information can only be accessed if you pay a fee.

Specific interests

There are also many, many networking sites for those with particular interests. For example, DeviantArt is an international site for artists. On this site, users are given their own pages to show off their artistic abilities. It is said that 50,000 images are added to DeviantArt daily. Last.fm is dedicated to music lovers. It creates a detailed profile of each user’s musical taste by tracking which songs they listen to on streamed radio stations or off their computer. Flixster is a movie site where users can rate and review movies and find new ones to watch. Piczo is an online photo networking site, much like Photobucket and Flickr.

As you can see by this very condensed list, there are lots of online networking sites. Just while researching for this article I found two or three more sites I didn’t know about that I just had to join. It is definitely a booming trend … for all ages.