Social Sites

Top Social Networking Sites - General Interest

• MySpace: Started in 2003, MySpace was a driving force in popularizing social networking and still maintains a large userbase.
• Facebook: Founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was designed as a social networking site for Harvard students. After spreading from Harvard through the university ranks and down into high school, Facebook was opened to the public in 2006.
• Hi5: A fast-growing social network with a strong base in Central America, Hi5 has over fifty million users worldwide.
• Ning: A social network for creating social networks, Ning takes the idea of groups to a whole new level.

Top Social Networking Sites - Niche Sites

• Flixster: With a tagline of "stop watching bad movies," Flixster combines social networking with movie reviews.
• Last.fm: Billing itself as a social music site, Last.fm allows members to create their own radio station that learns what the person likes and suggests new music based on those interests. In addition to this, you can listen to the radio stations of friends and other Last.fm members.
• LinkedIn: A business-oriented social network, members invite people to be "connections" instead of "friends." Linkedin is a contact management system as well as a social network, and has a question-and-answer section similar to Yahoo! Answers.
• Xanga: A social blogging site that combines social networking elements with blogging. Members earn credits for participating in the site and can spend credits on various things such as buying mini-pictures to post in the comments of a friend's blog.

Top Social Networking Sites - International Sites

• Badoo: Based in London, Badoo is one of the top social networking sites in Europe.
• Migente: A social networking site targeted at Latin America.
• Orkut: Originally created by Google to compete with MySpace and Facebook, it has mainly caught hold in Brazil.
• Studivz: A German version of Facebook with a strong audience in students.
• Cyworld: A South Korean social networking site similar to MySpace.
• Faceparty A United Kingdom social networking site founded in 2000, it differs from the norm by charging a fee for features normally found for free in other social networking sites.
• Migente A social networking site targeted at Latin America.
• Orkut Originally created by Google to compete with MySpace and Facebook, it has mainly caught hold in Brazil.
• Piczo A social networking site aimed at teens with a strong following in Canada and the United Kingdom.
• Studivz A German version of Facebook with a strong audience in students.
• Passado A European social networking site with strong audiences in France, Spain and Germany.
• Friendster Launched in 2002, Friendster helped vitalize the Web 2.0 revolution of social networks, and was the source of inspiration for MySpace. One of the most popular social networks of its time, Friendster was overtaken by MySpace in 2004.
• Twitter One part social networking, one part worldwide chat, Twitter is one of the fastest growing phenomenons in the world. A mini-blogging service that lets you update your friends on what you are doing at that moment, Twitter was launched in late 2006 and had explosive growth in 2007.
• Tagged A general social networking site, Wikipedia reports that Tagged may be inflating its numbers to attract more users. The seeming lack of moderation for inappropriate material makes this social network unfit for kids.