Online Social Networks

From Isopedia

A Online Social Network is a community of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.

Contents

Historic Information

The first online social networks were called Usenet newsgroups (user network). An online social network a global Internet discussion system designed and built by Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979.

The first recognizable social network site launched in 1997, called SixDegrees.com. This allowed users to create profiles, list their friends, and beginning in 1998, surf the friends lists. Although it attracted many of users, it eventually closed in 2000. The reason that SixDegree closed is because users felt that it was simply ahead of its time and complained there was little to do after accepting friend requests.

As the world became more technologically advanced and spent more time on computers, people desired to experience a more advanced form of social networks.

From 1997-2001, online social networks slowly picked up, and began supporting various combinations of profiles. It allowed users to create personal, professional, and dating profiles. (more detailed than previous years) Social-networks became more user-friendly in that they encourages a profile photo, adding multimedia content, modifying the colors and fonts of the text, as well as the mechanism to leave messages.

From 2002 onward, many new social networks were launched due to the increase in interest of social networking as well as the World Wide Web. (Web 2.0) Statistics show that social networking sites are attracting one out of every 20 web visits in 2006.

While social networks attracted the majority of media attention in the United States, social networks began to grow in popularity worldwide, such as the Pacific Islands, Brazil, India, Japan, Sweden, Australia, and Poland.

Although online social networks have a similar background, all were designed for a different purpose, and therefore attract different users and connect through shared interests, political views, or activities.

Recently there have been studies documenting the usage of social networks in schools, universities and libraries. For example: if a student’s professor were on facebook. Clearly, social networks expanded and have become a daily hobby for many individuals.

Timeline

  • 2002-Friendster
  • 2003-Myspace, LinkedIn
  • 2004-Facebook (Harvard only)
  • 2005-Xanga, Youtube, Bebo, Facebook (High School Networks)
  • 2006-Facebook (Corporation Networks)

Technical Information

Web 2.0 promotes web-design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and collaboration among users. This is where social-networks such as Myspace and Facebook are accessed via the Internet.

The World Wide Web, or simply Web, is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. It is an information-sharing model that is built on top of the Internet. The Web uses the HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to transmit data.

Social software is used to build online social networks. Social software is very similar to social networks in order to allow them to work with a compatible database. All social software creates links between users, and then forms a community, also known as a social network.

Profile and linkage data from online social networks can be gathered either through the use of automated collection techniques or through datasets provided directly from the company, enabling network analysis researchers to explore large-scale patterns of friending, usage, and other visible indicators

Online Social Networks Market

Online social networks don’t target one market group, but rather certain networks appeal to different age groups. Each site has its own niche that draws in customers and comprises its customer profile. Friendster has an older user base, while MySpace has the highest appeal across all age groups. Facebook on the other hand, appeals to college students. There is no one age or customer that online social networks appeal to. The wide variety of networks, which provide different services and features, enables individuals from a wide age range and demographic to be a part of online social networks.

Online social networks are making a large profit today and that market keeps growing. Facebook is currently estimated to have revenue of about $125 million and MySpace having estimated revenue of $525 million for the year. Networks primarily gather revenue from a few specific tactics, but many networks are getting more and more creative in how they make a profit. One of the main ways social networks are making a profit is through venture capital money. Within the past year, Friendster has received $13 million from Benchmark Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In addition, advertising is one of the more popular ways to bring money into the network. MySpace, for example, receives most of its revenue from paid advertisements. It is estimated that over $2 billion will be spent on advertising on social networks by 2010. It is also projected that MySpace will benefit the most. Facebook has also seen the benefit of advertising, signing a $240 million deal with Microsoft. The third most common way that social networks make a profit is by offering premium memberships for a fee. LinkedIn is an example of a social network that plans on implementing this concept and offering its premium member some extended business services. This thriving market however has lead social networks to think of new ways to make a profit and beat out their competitors. MySpace has decided to branch out into the music industry and is currently working on establishing MySpace records. The most innovative tactic however, is probably Facebook’s opening of its site and allowing individuals to make their own applications. This has brought it some major investment and boosted its revenue. MySpace is planning to add this same service, in hopes that they too can make a similar profit to that Facebook has experienced.

Popular Online Social Networks

There are many different ways online social networks are used. People can share their personal profile, business profile, pictures, videos, thoughts, and ideas.

MySpace

MySpace is currently the most popular and largest online social network. In June 2007 it was reported to have over 70 million active users, “with one in four Americans having logged in at some point.” This large number of users explains how MySpace has the broadest appeal across all ages. MySpace is an interactive site where individuals have the ability to socialize with others through establishing personal profiles. These profiles can be customized using different layouts and colors. MySpace is free and easy and offers the ability to meet a large number of friends online. MySpace also offers the features of adding photos, reading or writing blobs, adding or listening to music, creating or joining groups and watching or adding videos. Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe founded MySpace, which was launched in July 2003. At this time Friendster was the leading social network. Anderson and DeWolfe entered into the social networking arena when they were a part of a company called eUniverse, later renamed Intermix Media, and then bought by Rupert Murdoch of NewsCorp for $580 million. Anderson and DeWolfe came up with concept of MySpace as a result of the success that the social network sector was currently experiencing and their feeling that they could create a better network than Friendster. MySpace was able to made its mark in social networking and triumph over Friendster through its offering of customized personal profiles. Not to mention, MySpace already had a large base of potential users that were part of the eUniverse community. Recently, in an attempt to keep up with the competitive market of social networks, MySpace has added new features to its sites. These features include MySpace News which features current news stories and MySpace TV, which is similar to YouTube and enables video sharing.

Facebook

Facebook is the second most popular and largest online social network. Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, which was originally called “the facebook”. Facebook was a project of Zuckerberg’s and initially open to only Harvard students. Immediately the site was popular, 1,200 Harvard students had joined within 24 hours of its launch. “After one month, over half of the undergraduate population had a profile.” This rapid success led Zuckerberg to extend Facebook’s services and make it available to other Ivy League schools and eventually to all universities. On August 2005 the domain name facebook.com was purchased for $200,000. Facebook extended its network even further by allowing US high schools to sign up in September 2005 and then in September 2006 any individual with a registered email address could join. Facebook is also worldwide and now available to virtually anyone. Despite is opening the network to the mass population, Facebook still remains popular among college students. Facebook’s popularity is astounding, in September 2005 a survey showed that “approximately 85% of the students in the supported colleges had a Facebook account, with 60% of them logging in daily.” Facebook, like MySpace, Is free to use. In order for someone to view your profile you must confirm him or her as one of your friends or he or she must be in your network. Members can create profiles that contain personal information, show their friends, networks there a part of, groups, photos and the wall, which enables their friends to leave them messages. Members can also exchange private messages with a user. The photo feature of Facebook is one of its key components, “over 1.5 million photos [are] uploaded daily”. It is very simple to upload photos and when users meet the criteria they can view others photos and add comments. Another successful feature of Facebook is the events feature. This enables users to organize or be a part of events, such as parties or sporting events. It also can be made a private or public event, which impacts what users can see or participate in it. Facebook continues to adapt and add new applications. A major addition was in September 6, 2006 called the News Feed, which appears on member’s home pages and has any changes in your friend’s profiles. In addition, on August 22, 2006 the gift feature was added, that enables users to send virtual gifts to their friends, each gift costs $1. One of the biggest features that Facebook has added is the Facebook Platform in May 2007. This allows individuals to create applications themselves, which other users of Facebook can then join. However, the most recent addition to Facebook is Facebook Notes, which appeared in late August and allows you to write a blog.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn was founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it's head quarters is in Mountain View, California. The founder and former CEO of LinkedIn is Reid Hoffman who is now the President of Products and Chairman of the Board. The current CEO is Dan Nye. LinkedIn is funded by investors including Sequoia Capital, Greylock, the European Founders Fund, and Bessemer Venture Partners. LinkedIn is a business-oriented online social network that allows you to create a profile of yourself including who you are, your professional status, and a list of contacts you associate with in business. There are over 20 million professionals on LinkedIn. There are over 3 million visitors per month and is growing at an annual rate of 485%. LinkedIn is currently free to join, but offers paid accounts which lets the user have more resources to find different professionals even if they are not in the users network. LinkedIn lets you find clients, experts, and new job opportunities. It allows you to have connections with other professionals which allows you close deals with ease. LinkedIn's mission is to "help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have". This year LinkedIn launched a Company Profile feature. This allows companies to post a description of themselves, important statistics, and job listings. This new feature allows companies to reach potential clients, partners, and employees. LinkedIn meets the strict privacy guidelines of the European Union Safe Harbor Privacy Framework. Every relationship on LinkedIn are mutually confirmed. No one can enter the LinkedIn Network without explicit consent.

Friendster

Jonathan Abrams founded Friendster in Mountain View, California in March 2002 and is privately owned. It's current headquarters is in San Francisco, California. Friendster is supported by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and individual investors. It currently has over 50 million registered users and is most popular in Asia. Friendster allows you to create a personal profile that includes your own ideas, interests, and videos. This allows people to stay in touch with friends and discover other people with similar interests and share ideas. Friendster has over 65 million members worldwide. People choose Friendster to connect with family, friends, and groups. Friendster attracts an older crowd, 71% of the members are 25 and older. Friendster maintains a private, clean, and user-friendly environment. Up until April 2004 Friendster was considered the most popular online social network service until My Space surpassed it. In 2003 Friendster was valued at 53 million. Google offered $30 million to buy Friendster in 2003, but their offer was turned down. Between the years 2004 and 2005 Friendster went through many CEO changes. During this span Friendster went through five CEO. After all this change Friendster was valued at 1/20 of what it was in 2003. Friendster was awarded a patent in 2006 for their online social method called "Web of Friends", which is the combination of the Circle of Friends with the Web of Contacts methods.

You Tube

You Tube is an online video sharing social network. The founders of You Tube are Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. Members are able to register to the site and upload and share videos to the public. People are able to watch many types of videos such as current events, sports videos, and videos on hobbies. The slogan for You Tube is "Broadcast Yourself". The site's main objective is for the public to post and share their own creative videos and to be the future broadcasters of the world. After users upload videos You Tube automatically converts into flash video format. You Tube accepts videos in .WMV, .AVI, .MOV, MPEG and .MP4, formats. They're millions of people watching millions of videos on You Tube everyday. In October 2006 Google bought You Tube for $1.65 billion. You Tube is the leader in online videos.

Xanga

Launched in 1998 Xanga free web based service where members post weblogs, which is a online personal diary or journal. The site is operated by Xanga.com, Inc., which is based in New York City. Xanga was created by Marc Ginsburg, Dan Huddle, and John Hiler. Users are able to share their thoughts with their friends, and through their thought are able to make new friends. In Xanga members are able to share photos, video, audio files, and social networking profiles too. The main users of the site are teenagers. Xanga creates a clean environment for users, by allowing users to flag people that are violating the site. Also Xanga created a rating system which rates the amount of explicit content on each page. Xanga offers different subscriptions that offer different types of features.

Sources

Team Members

  • Megan Corrigan
  • Jena Pellegrino
  • Derek Podhaizer
  • Matthew Tiagwad
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