Why Social Networking?

The internet has made the world smaller. People of all ages and backgrounds have discovered that they can enrich their lives through the contacts they make on social networking websites. Social networking sites give you a great chance to keep in touch with your old friends, keep tabs on current friends and family, and to create new online friendships with people who share similar interests and business connections.

Evaluation criteria to compare the top ten social networking sites

Networking features: A good goes above and beyond simply allowing people to post a profile and update pictures. Additional features should include instant messaging, photo tagging and notifications, shared music playlists and videos. The best social network sites allow you to join and create groups based on your interests (like the U3A interest groups but much wider).

Profiles: The heart and soul of social networking sites are people's personal profiles - a place where people can express their thoughts and feelings, post their photographs and interact with their network of friends. The most popular social network websites put a strong emphasis on the user's profile, making it easy to use, yet still be reflective of each user's personality.

Search: The 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 the ability to search for people by name, city, school and email address.

Security: The internet can be a dangerous place to post personal information. All social networks should provide privacy customization and give you the ability to set your profile or parts of your profile to public or private. Additionally, these sites should give you the ability to report inappropriate behaviour and content and to block specific people entirely.

Note from Jane: A lot of older people are put off social networking because of their personal information being ‘shared’. Advanced settings on most sites allow you to determine what’s seen by others, and who sees what. We discussed ’s plans to sell users’ web browsing habits to advertisers so that ads appearing on Facebook pages are ‘more relevant to your interests’. Most of us will be opposing this move by signing a petition on Facebook. Despite this negative, there are some great opportunities to meet a wider circle of like-minded people with similar interests through social networking.

Evaluating most popular social networking websites

Each social network promotes a platform and user experience that makes it unique. Each approaches online social relationships from a specific perspective. The top social networking sites have become the most frequently visited pages on the internet. It's important that you find the ones that best represent your personality and allow you to share your thoughts and feelings with the widest selection of friends. The following reviews of ten social networking sites begin with the most popular, Facebook.

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When social networking took off in the early 2000s, Facebook was designed specifically for college students to socialize and connect. It didn't take long for this service to expand and become inclusive of people of all ages. To stay on top, Facebook's service is constantly updating with a wide variety of picture, video, advertising and security features. Facebook has become a way of life.

Network Features: You can't visit many sites without seeing the buttons that allow you to share the content on Facebook. When you log in to this social media site, the first thing you see will be a news feed that keeps you updated on the lives of your friends. The Facebook toolbar will notify you immediately if you have a new friend request, an unread message in your inbox or if someone commented on or liked your status or posts.

Where Facebook thrives in terms of advertisements is through the growth of small businesses owned by Facebook members. You can create a page for your business, band or event and gain publicity by asking for likes and keeping people consistently informed about your business. You can also gain attention and reach for new likes by creating your own Facebook advertisement.

The mobile app for this social network is very impressive and can even provide for a better experience if you only care to see what is highlighted by the news feed. It cuts out the majority of ads, suggestions and friends that are current online and open to chat. These options are still available from your smartphone or tablet, but they are hidden unless you swipe the screen, either right or left. A wide

2 variety of information can be uploaded to your Facebook account. You can post YouTube videos and watch them directly from your news feed without even following the link and opening a new window. Also, beyond uploading photo albums, you can upload personal videos, just in case you have relatives who may have missed out on special memories, like a child's first steps or footage of your friends they may have forgotten about after a night of partying. Facebook really does allow you to keep in touch with friends in many different ways, even if much of it is over sharing.

Profiles: Facebook's website design is straightforward. It has few graphics or decoration, but most users adore the uniform, utilitarian interface. Although you can't customize skins or change the colour scheme, you can rearrange the position of some of your information boxes on your profile by simply dragging and dropping them to other spots on the screen.

When you edit your profile, you can be as specific as you'd like to be. You can make your profile a mini resume with your current and past jobs. You can also add items to your education networks. Once you add this information, Facebook can focus on specific suggestions for people you may know from your university or current job. You can also add your basic information such as where you live, your favourite quotes, your website, and your religious and political views.

Search: Facebook's search bar will allow you to search based on any aspect. If you want to join a fan page, you look up keywords or names. Though this social networking website isn't only for college students, there is still a big focus on finding friends that you have gone to school with. If you search by email address and find friends who aren't Facebook members yet, you can send invites and, should they choose to eventually start an account, they will immediately be notified of your friend invite.

Security: You must be at least 13 years old to register with Facebook. You cannot browse the Facebook database without registering for an account. In its terms of service agreement, Facebook states that it does not allow offensive content such as sexually charged language and explicit photos. However, it also states that it is not responsible for closely monitoring the content on the website. Facebook encourages members to report content they find offensive. Facebook also allows you to block individual users, report spam and report profile abuse. Facebook has some of the most specific and custom privacy setting of all the social network sites. In addition to making your entire profile private, you can select which sections of your profile you would like displayed and to whom. For example, your wall can be open to everyone, but your photographs can be set to only display to your friends or friends of friends. The same is true for your personal information, education, work and contact information.

Twitter

Networking Features: is one of the easiest social networks to pick up and start using with a nickname @sign/follow and followers. It’s meant to be used on the go. ie smartphone rather than a pc where you can update with 140 character tweets/upload pics/video links immediately. Local businesses looking for a way to increase their reach can also take advantage of quick updates, creating loyalty in their followers and rewarding them with coupon links and promotional codes through their tweets. The Discover feed shows you news that have either been tailored to your interests or stories that were tweeted by those you follow. Trends feed shows both keywords that have been used recently in Twitter and keywords, and follow the conversation regarding the most popular news stories.

Profile: The profile page fits in two small windows (optional Photo, location, website, short bio).

Search: The downside of searching for friends on this social media site is that most users, other than celebrities, use nicknames that closely resemble their names, so it's difficult to find and connect with friends unless you know their @ names.

Security: Twitter has a surprising number of security features - option to allow others to find you by email address. Several Twitter accounts are locked and you can only see tweets written, no follow/ers. It's very easy to reset your password at any time. In what should be standard with every social media account, Twitter allows you to associate a mobile phone number with your login and password. This greatly reduces the chance of Twitter hacking.

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Networking Features: Google+ is the most recent major entry, launching 2011 with 500 million users, with a significant advantage of being on your web browser at all times. Focus is on creating circles to distinguish connections. The four standard circles are friends, family, acquaintances and those you're following. You can create as many custom circles as you'd like. A simple and easy site to navigate and manage. Communities with similar interests to yours are suggested for you to join. Several options for communicating - click on someone's name, a private window will open up and start an instant chat. Google Hangout feature – with a webcam and a microphone set up, you can video chat with up to nine friends. The quality matches that of Skype.

Profiles are clean and very easy to read. People tab, communities and people in your circles, and those who have added you to their circles. Add as much or as little information to your profile as you want. Links tab. Here, you can post - YouTube, websites Only visual additions you can make are a profile picture and a cover photo.

Search: Google second to none search. You can search for connections by name, address code, interests and keywords, known contacts - school and email address. Local tab – info locations.

Security: Advanced settings allow extremely specific privacy and security settings. You can manage future interactions and notifications and choose to include anyone, only you or those in your own circles. You are even able to manage who can see when you create a new social circle or join a community.

Networking Features/Search: Myspace has been at the top and bottom of social networking but has now capitalized on the music-lover niche. This is one of the top social networking sites to use if you want to stay current with your favourite bands and connect with other music fans. Instead of a wall, you post and read updates on a stream. The majority of what is posted on the stream which you side-scroll to view/hear pictures, videos or mixes compiled by others. Instantly listening to a friend's mix is a great feature but there is a stream filter where you can choose to eliminate music, posts and profiles

Profiles: There is very little you can change on a member page. You are allowed to add pictures and filter your interests, but that is as far as it goes. As a band or DJ, you have several more options to display your personality on your own page. Myspace has come a long way from near-bankruptcy to what it is now. Previously, this social network was swarmed with ads and spam mail. Now, there is not a single ad on the site.

Security: In terms of privacy, you have the option to make your profile and interests public or private.

Networking Features: Linkedin uses the social networking structure for professional networking, career connections and opportunity to create a strong online reputation.Your updates can announce you’re back on the job market again or celebrating recently being hired by a company. Stacks of networking features to help grow your professional network (suggestions of people you may know, jobs you may be interested in and groups you may like).

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Profile: You add a list of skills and expertise to your profile so that employers can get a better picture of what you could bring to their companies. Your connections are asked to endorse the skills you list, and when they do, it shows up as a status update, instantly giving you credibility. Your wall is also a great place to post company blogs and articles

Search: The search function is phenomenal. By entering a person's name, you can see how you're connected. You can also see what skills you have in common with every one you search. LinkedIn can be a lifesaver if you are out of work and are looking for employment. For employers, LinkedIn provides instant ways to find employees who are the right fit for their businesses. .There is a paid (expensive) upgrade, which gives the benefits of premium search filters and the ability to see who's viewed your profile and save files in LinkedIn's profile organizer.

Incredibly popular in Brazil and India, was Google's first attempt at creating a social networking website. It has been redesigned to resemble Google+, with a few exceptions. It has a very clean interface, but it's still a pain to navigate.

Orkut has a large number of networking features. Groups are a great feature, as are friend requests and comments sent to your Gmail inbox. You can also add scraps (for friends only), which include things like YouTube URLs, widgets, photos, podcasts and more.

You can specify which sections of your profile are visible instead of the usual blanket approach of everyone or just friends. Like many social network sites, you also have the ability to block users, report spam and report abuse. Additionally, you must be 18 to open an Orkut account.

Question is would your sooner try out Google + more recent service.

Hugely popular in Asia, splits its focus between social networking and playing online games competitively. As social media sites go, this site is not visually appealing. Ads take up the right side of the page and the entire background advertises one of the featured games. There are several spam messages sent to inboxes. While Friendster was once very video friendly, it has moved away from its focus on video uploads and sharing. Groups are a big focus - you can browse and join public groups, but need group creator’s permission to join private groups. Friendster's privacy settings allow only your friends to view your full profile, while a limited profile is still accessible to others. You can see the last 100 people who have viewed your profile and, if necessary, you can block individual members. If you're trying to make new friends, there is an advanced filter system. Beyond age range, gender and location, you can choose to say more to tell members who click on your picture exactly what you're looking for.

Hi5 is best described as a digital black book of dating opportunities with filtering updates for specific gender, age range, country and city to help you can see if there is someone to meet or interest/activity worthwhile to do locally.

Hi5 focuses on the Meet Me section of its site. where you are shown a picture based on the filters you put in place and you click on Yes or No, depending on whether you are interested. Another focus is

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Pets, where you buy people with your virtual hi5 money and own friends and strangers. Keep in mind, you are bought and owned as well. Essentially, each time you are bought, it raises your status and credibility.

The profile page allows you to post details about yourself such as your physical description, who you are looking to network with and where you are from. There is a Privacy link at the top of every page where you can adjust a number of privacy settings, including who sees your profile, accepting comments, and message and photo settings.

After its launch in 2005 boomed in English-speaking countries, such as Ireland, England and New Zealand. In recent years, Bebo has been revamped with a brand-new site design, but it lacks originality, and has been described as a bit of a copycat, with weaknesses in its search and browse features.

Bebo is relatively easy to use, has more mood specific tabs (cool, funny, sorry, OMG or agree, or to leave a comment) available in its reply status, offers a wide choice of personalised ‘skins’ for profiles, automatically defaults your profile to private, and allows you to limit ages of people contacting you.

You can't freely browse or search for members by specific criteria. This adds a level of security that many sites do not have; however, it also limits members' ability to expand their network of friends. To search for friends, you have to upload your address book to Bebo and it will find your friends' profiles by email addresses. Or you can type in individual email addresses and hunt for your friends that way. You cannot search the Bebo database by name, school or city.

Created in Belgium in 2003, Netlog excels at supporting multiple languages (40) giving access to international members. The spotlight feature that displays shouts and blog posts from random Netlog members is a good feature but it costs money to your pictures and profile so strangers can find you. Netlog works well as a social network for a close group of friends that you have on your email contacts list, but if you want to find new friends, you may have to also subscribe to the social media site's partner site Twoo, which is a different service altogether. Netlog's security and privacy settings are in depth and helpful if you don't want spam or strangers viewing your pictures. If you have high security settings in place, you can add certain people to your Whitelist, giving them access to your profile, pictures and blogs. The Blacklist lets you immediately block users.

Source: http://social-networking-websites-review.toptenreviews.com/

July 2014

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