To the Furious:
After spending a fair few hours foraging on the World Wide Interwebs, I have found a fearful fad, a treacherous trend intent on threatening the thoughtful interactions that have helped our "2.0" of the Web - something I'm going to call "Hunting and Gathering 2.0." The rest of the technorati gabble-on with great gusto about "Social Aggregation," so let's dive deep into the disturbing topic:
According to a January 2008 article in Complete, social networking users are members of more than one meaningless mangle of social sites with painfully punctilious and precise purposes:
"The Compete article provides some interesting data points (January 2008):
-64% of Facebook members also belong to MySpace (MySpace has nearly three times the unique visitors of -Facebook and a few years head start);
-Bebo, Hi5 and Friendster all share more than 49% of their members with MySpace;
-LinkedIn shares 42% of its members with Facebook and 32% with MySpace."
So let's take a tired moment to tarry in the tenement of the most magnanimous movements; let's list the largest social networking sites (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites). But first, consider the far-reaching ramifications that regular use of these insidious sites might have on this fleeting, fast-paced fantasy we call "Life."
I am going to go out on a limb and say: "Monetization of private, personal information has been limited to various Viagra-related advertisement. The real value of social networking to trends among the "hoi polloi" is obvious to the Cool Hunters and trend-setters - find the bell curve of cool and move toward the edges that show a growing, organic gathering with an exponential regression and exploit it."
Add to the list below "Lifestrea.ms", "Jaiku", and social browsers such as "Flock", and you can see Web 3.0's infancy - the emergence of social intelligence through a careless caterwal of contagious behaviours known as LifeStreams, Social Aggregation, and social sharing.
Does anyone want to explore adding oneself to ALL of the below sites? What would happen to your personal privacy and pervasive persona, its public visibility all but a thing of the past? Who's with me?
As always, my Furious:
Be well. Be Strong.
Be Furious.
List of Social Networking Sites
| Name | Description/Focus | Registered users | Registration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advogato | Free and open source software developers | 11,000 | Open |
| ANobii | Books | Unknown | Open |
| aSmallWorld | European jet set and social elite | 150,000 | Invite-only |
| Badoo | General, Popular in Europe | 12,500,000 | Open to people 18 and over |
| Bebo | General, Popular in UK, Ireland, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands | 40,000,000 | Open to people 13 and over |
| BlackPlanet | African-Americans | 16,000,000 | Open |
| Broadcaster.com | Video sharing and webcam chat | 26,000,000 | Open |
| Buzznet | Music and pop-culture | 550,000 | Open |
| Cake Financial | Investing | Unknown | Open |
| Capazoo | General (blogs, photos, music, videos) | Unknown | Open |
| CarDomain | Car enthusiasts | 1,600,000 | Open |
| Care2 | Green living and social activism | 8,123,058 | Open |
| Classmates.com | School, college, work and the military | 40,000,000 | Open |
| Consumating | "Consumeetings" | 21,000 | Open |
| CouchSurfing | Hospitality | 402,000 | Open |
| Cyworld | Young South Koreans | 21,200,000 | Open |
| Dandelife | Collective narratives or "shared biographies" | Unknown | Open |
| Dodgeball | Mobile location-based service. Owned by Google. | Unknown | Open |
| DontStayIn | Clubbing (primarily UK) | 333,000 | Open |
| Experience Project | Life experiences | Unknown | Open |
| General. Popular in Canada, UK, USA and New Zealand. | 62,000,000 | Open to people 13 and older. | |
| Faceparty | General. Popular UK. | Unknown | Open to people 16 and older. |
| Flickr | Photo sharing | 4,000,000 | Open (Yahoo! login) |
| Flixster | Movies | 36,000,000 | Open |
| Fotolog | Photoblogging | 12,695,007 | Open |
| Friends Reunited | School, college, work, sport and streets | 19,000,000 | Open |
| Friendster | General | 50,000,000 | Open |
| Frühstückstreff | General | 11,600 | Open |
| Gaia Online | Anime and games | 9,300,000 | Open |
| Gather | Article, picture, and video sharing, as well as group discussions | 450,000 | Open |
| Geni.com | Families, genealogy | 750,000 | Open |
| Grono.net | Poland | 1,350,000 | Invite-only |
| GuildCafe | Online games | Unknown | Open |
| hi5 | General. Latin American and Asian teens. | 98,000,000 | Open |
| Habbo | General. Over 31 communities worldwide. Chat Room and user profiles. | 86,000,000 | Open to people 13 and older |
| Hospitality Club | Hospitality | 328,629 | Open |
| Hyves | Most popular Dutch social network, especially for students | 5,000,000 | Open |
| imeem | Music, Video, Photos, Blogs | 16,000,000 | Open |
| IRC-Galleria | Finland | 465,000 | Open |
| iWiW | Hungary | 3,100,000 | Invite-only |
| Jaiku | General. Owned by Google. | Unknown | Open |
| Joga Bonito | Football (soccer). Owned by Google. | Unknown | Open |
| LibraryThing | Book lovers | 214,425 | Open |
| Business | 17,000,000 | Open | |
| LiveJournal | Blogging | 12,900,000 | Open (OpenID) |
| LunarStorm | Sweden | 1,200,000 | Open |
| MEETin | General | 72,000 | Open |
| Meetup.com | General | 2,000,000 | Open |
| MiGente.com | Latinos | 3,600,000 | Open |
| Mixi | Japan | 9,830,000 | Invite-only |
| MOG | Music | Unknown | Open |
| Multiply | "Real world" relationships | 7,500,000 | Open |
| MyChurch | Christian Churches | 70,306 | Open |
| MyHeritage | family-oriented social network service | 20,000,000 | Open |
| My Opera Community | General (blogs, photo albums, forums, groups, etc.) | 1,001,798 | Open |
| myYearbook | General | 950,000 | Open |
| MySpace | General. Popular in the USA, UK and Australia. | 217,000,000 | Open |
| Netlog | Formerly known as Facebox. | 28,000,000 | Open |
| Nexopia | Canada | 1,158,531 | Open |
| Odnoklassniki.ru | General. Popular in Russia | 8,000,000 | Open |
| OkCupid | Social networking and dating | 800,000 | Open |
| orkut | Owned by Google. Popular in Brazil and India. | 67,000,000 | Open (Google login) |
| OUTeverywhere | Gay | Unknown | Open |
| Passado | General | 4,700,000 | Open |
| Passportstamp | Travel | 12,000 | Open |
| Phanfare | Family photo and video sharing | Unknown | Open |
| Plaxo | Business | 15,000,000 | Open |
| Playahead | Swedish teenagers | 530,000 | Open |
| Pownce | Websites, files, and short updates | Unknown | Open |
| ProfileHeaven | British teens | 100,000 | Open |
| RateItAll | General (consumer ratings) | Unknown | Open |
| Reunion.com | Locating friends and family, keeping in touch | 28,000,000 | Open |
| Ryze | Business | 250,000 | Open |
| Searchles | Social search and networking | Unknown | Open |
| Sconex | American high schools | 500,000 | Open |
| Sermo | Physicians | 40,000 | Open only to registered D.O.s and M.D.s in the U.S.A. |
| Shelfari | Books | Unknown | Open |
| Soundpedia | Music | 3,500,000 | Open |
| Sportsvite | Recreational sports | 18,000 | Open |
| Stickam | Live video streaming and chat. | 1,305,051 | Open |
| Student.com | International teens and colleges | 850,000 | Open |
| StudiVZ | University students, mostly in the German-speaking countries | 4,000,000 | Open |
| Tagged.com | General | 30,000,000 | Open |
| TakingITGlobal | Social action | 145,000 | Open |
| TravBuddy.com | Travel | 760,000 | Open |
| Travellerspoint | Travel | 105,000 | Open |
| tribe.net | General | 602,876 | Open |
| Micro-blogging, RSS, updates | Unknown | Open | |
| Utterz | Micro-blogging, RSS, Audio updates via mobile device. Reads text messages over the phone. | Unknown | Open |
| Vox | Blogging | Unknown | Open |
| WAYN | Travel and lifestyle | 8,000,000 | Open to people 18 and older |
| WebBiographies | Genealogy and biography | Unknown | Open |
| Windows Live Spaces | Blogging (formerly MSN Spaces) | 40,000,000 | Open |
| Wis.dm | Questions and answers about anything and everything | 20,000 | Open |
| Woophy | travel & photography, photo sharing website | 23,000 | Open |
| Xanga | Blogs and "metro" areas | 40,000,000 | Open |
| Business | 4,000,000 | Open | |
| Yahoo! 360° | Linked to Yahoo! IDs | 4,700,000 | Open to people 18 and older, (Yahoo! login) |
| Yahoo! Mash | Yahoo's new SNS - Still in beta | Unknown | Invite-only while in beta |
| Zooomr | Universal photo sharing | Unknown | Open (OpenID) |
