Orkut was a social networking service launched in 2004 by Google. It was popular in Brazil, with over 60% of users located there as of 2007. Orkut allowed users to join communities and share content. Friendster was one of the earliest social networks, launched in 2002, but lost popularity to Myspace by 2004. LinkedIn is a professional networking site used to build business connections. It reached profitability in 2006. Plaxo and Ning allowed users to create customized social networks for specific interests.

1. Social Networking Through the Eyes of Teens By, anonymous .

2. Orkut “ Orkut is an Internet social network service run by Google and named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten . It claims to be designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Similar to Facebook , Friendster and MySpace , Orkut goes a step further by permitting the creation of easy-to-set-up simple forums (called "communities") of users. Since October 2006 , Orkut has permitted users to create accounts without an invitation. In April 2007 , Orkut introduced polls in communities. The initial target market for Orkut was the United States, but the majority of its users are in Brazil . [1] In fact, as of November 2007, 62.9% of the traffic come from Brazil, followed by 19.2% from India. [2] ” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut

3. Orkut cont. “ Orkut was launched in January 2004 by the search company Google, the brainchild of Orkut Büykökten, a Turkish software engineer, who developed it as an independent project while working at Google. In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Orkut Büyükkökten and Google based Orkut on inCircle code. Originally, its membership was by invitation only. At the end of July 2004, Orkut's membership surpassed 1 million accounts, and by the following September, it had surpassed 2 million accounts. In October 2006, Orkut stated to have 37 million accounts and 1.3 million daily visitors. [3] As of August 2007, the service claimed 67 million users.” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut

4. FRIENDSTER “ Friendster is an Internet social network service . The Friendster site was founded in Mountain View, California , United States by Jonathan Abrams in March 2002 [1] and is privately owned. Friendster is based on the Circle of Friends (social network) and Web of Friends techniques for networking individuals in virtual communities and demonstrates the small world phenomenon . It currently has 50 million users.” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendster

5. FRIENDSTER cont. “ Friendster was considered the top online social network service until around April 2004 when it was overtaken by MySpace in terms of page views, according to Nielsen Online . [2] Friendster has also received competition from all-in-one sites such as Windows Live Spaces , Bebo , Yahoo! 360 , and Facebook . Of late, newer websites like hi5 are posing new competition for Friendster. [3] Google offered $30,000,000 to buy out Friendster in 2003, but they were turned down. [4] Friendster was funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital in October 2003 with a reported valuation of $53 million. In April 2004 , John Abrams was removed as CEO and Tim Koogle took over as interim CEO. Koogle previously served as President and CEO at Yahoo!. Koogle was later replaced by Scott Sassa in June 2004 . Sassa left in May 2005 and was replaced by Taek Kwon. Taek Kwon was then succeeded by Kent Lindstrom, following a recapitalization by Kleiner and Benchmark that valued Friendster at less than one-twentieth its 2003 valuation. Friendster's decision to remain private instead of selling to Google in 2003 is considered one of the biggest blunders of Silicon Valley , the Associated Press claims.” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendster

6. PLAXO “ Plaxo is an online address book service founded by Napster co-founder Sean Parker , Minh Nguyen, and two Stanford engineering students, Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring. Plaxo, based in Mountain View, California , is currently privately held and supported by venture capital . In October 2006, the website reported 15 million users. [1] Plaxo provides automatic updating of contact information. Users and their contacts store their information on Plaxo's servers. When this information is edited by the user, the changes appear in the address books of all those who listed the account changer in their own books. Once contacts are stored in the central location, it is possible to list connections between contacts and access the address book from anywhere.” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaxo

7. NING “ Ning is a company co-founded by Marc Andreessen (of Netscape fame) and Gina Bianchini . It launched its service in October 2005. Ning is an online platform for creating social websites and social networks. The websites running on its service are built in standard PHP and the platform itself is built in Java .” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning

8. NING cont. “ Ning hopes to compete with large social sites like MySpace and Facebook by appealing to users who want to create networks around specific interests or have limited technical skills. [1] The unique feature of Ning is that anyone can make a full copy of the types of social websites and social networks that are popular today and customize them for a particular topic or need, catering to specific audiences. At its launch, in October 2004, Ning offered several simple base websites developed internally and by members of a closed beta. In late September of 2006, Ning narrowed its focus to offering a group website, a photos website, and a videos website for people to copy and use for any purpose. These three templates were superseded by a single customizable template aimed at allowing non-developers to more easily customize their copy of the social website. An example of the new base can be seen at the company-maintained network creators website . All the older sites are still accessible, but the company is only actively developing and promoting the new social network template.” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning

9. LinkedIn “ LinkedIn is a business-oriented networking site (comparable to a social networking site ), mainly used for professional networking. As of November 2007, it had more than 16 million registered users, spanning 150 industries and more than 400 economic regions (as classified by the service).” taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn

10. LinkedIn cont. “ LinkedIn's CEO is Dan Nye, while former CEO Reid Hoffman , previously an Executive Vice President of PayPal , remains as President of Product and Chairman of the Board. LinkedIn is located in Mountain View, California , and funded [1] by Greylock , Sequoia Capital [2] , Bessemer Venture Partners , and the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability (positive cash flow) in March 2006.” taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn

11. Hi5 “ Hi5 is a place where people can communicate. It is also a place where people can meet new people and where you can find friends. It is a social networking Internet service. It was founded and created by Ramu Yalamanchi. He is the current CEO. In 2007 Hi5 has been one of the most visited sites on the web. It is ranking to the top 25. Hi5 has over 50 million members.” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5

12. Hi5 cont. “ In hi5 people have a profile and in some profiles people upload pictures of them so that people can comment them. They also tell what their age and hometown. This site also allows people to have make a photo album and people can add music in their profile. People can send friend requests and the people that get the friend request can accept, decline, or block the person altogether. Hi5 is also a place where you can find old friends and to meet new people. (There are indications that this social networking site uses spammers to attract new users). Several people have reported that after they open their new account, that hi5 will send invitations to their e-mail contact list. Some people go on Hi5 almost every day and spend up to 2-3 hours on it.” Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5

13. WHAT IS FACEBOOK? Facebook is a social networking site that allows people to communicate with their friends and exchange information. Sourced from www.wikipedia.com

14. Facebook was launched on February 4 th 2004. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg who was a Harvard Graduate in the class of 2006. At first membership was restricted to Harvard students, but it was expanded to allow any members of Ivy League schools within two months. After September 11 th 2006, anyone over the age of thirteen has been allowed to join. “ Facebook” refers to the paper facebooks that new students and staff get at the beginning of the year so they become familiar with the faces of the students on campus. Facebook is free to users and generates profit from advertising. Users create profiles, write about themselves, add pictures, join groups and causes, and add some of Facebook’s many applications to their profiles. Sourced from www.wikipedia.com

15. What makes Facebook different from other sites? Facebook has privacy features, that allow you to have restricted access to your profile page. Only users that you confirm as friends can see all of your information. Facebook has a feature called a “Wall”, where friends can post messages and comments for all of a user’s confirmed friends to read. Facebook has over 6500 different applications that users can add to their profiles. Sticky Notes, Horoscopes, Tarot, Happy Hour, Inspiring quotes and Anonymous boxes, are some of the most popular applications. Sourced from www.wikipedia.com

16. FEATURES -Facebook Market Place is a place where users can post adds, like For Sale, Jobs, Housing and other things. -Users can change their status to what they are doing at a certain time. -You can send people gifts/ - Facebook Events is a feature that lets friends know about upcoming events in a certain area. -You can add the top friends feature. -iLike is a music feature that shows the upcoming tour dates of the bands you like and has a music quiz similar to the one on the iPod. -Users can add songs and videos to their profiles. -Users can make slideshows with their pictures and tag the friends that are in them. -When a Facebook user passes away, their profile is changed to a memorial page where users can leave comments and condolences. Sourced from www.wikipedia.com

17. Disadvantages There have been some cases where Facebook is used to investigate underage drinking or violations of dry campus policies. High Schools are now starting to investigate underage drinking and other illegal activities with Facebook. Third Party users, such as the makers of certain applications, have access to nearly all of a person’s profile information. Facebook doesn’t screen these developers, and cannot control what they do with the information. Sourced from www.wikipedia.com

18. STATISTICS -Over 55 million active users -An average of 250 000 new users everyday -Over 65 billion page views per month -Largest networks are in London, UK and Toronto, Canada -Seventh highest traffic rank -1.7 billion photos Sourced from www.wikipedia.com