Top 5 Social Networking Sites as ranked by www.Alexa.com:
1. www.Facebook.com
Ranked number one in popularity, Facebook is a more private site in which users can interact with only the people that they wish to. These users have the ability to add friends, send messages, and change/update their personal profiles as they wish. The most popular feature is “updating your status”, which allows you to let other people know what you are doing or feeling at any given moment of the day.
2. www.Youtube.com
Youtube is a video sharing website which has gained major populatiry in the last few years. People can submit videos of anything they choose, unless pornographic. This website can be a useful tool in interacting and building an audience, so much so, that some videos showcased on Youtube have viewings in the millions. It is also a great way to get personal and let people know who you really are!
3. www.Myspace.com
Myspace and Facebook are basically the same concept, as a user you can befriend others and send messages. The major difference between the two, is that MySpace allos you to customize your page with different colors, music, etc. Myspace seems to be more popular amoung musicians and artists, due to the fact that you can create essentially your own webpage through their service.
4. www.Twitter.com
The idea of Twitter seems to baffle a lot of people. Twitter is a micro-blogging application, this basically means that you reach your audience through quick updates about what you are doing. Similar to the “status updates” shown on Facebook and MySpace, but as a public platform posts are stored and searchable by Google Spiders. Twitter updates are not only visible by your list of personal followers, anyone can see what you are updating. Twitter has gained enormous amounts of followers in the last year, especially celebrities, making their ranking soar to the top 5.
5. www.LinkedIn.com
This is a site dedicated to the “professional”. Your profile is created to basically be an online resume by outlining your previous companies and work experience. Businesses can search fields and allows people to connect with other others who hold the same profession, or professional interests. You can also reconnect with previous co-workers.
Other Notable Sites:
www.Flickr.com
A simple photo sharing site, Flickr, allows you to connect with other photographers and any uploaded images can be seen, and used, by people all over the globe.
Social Bookmarking Sites, such as:
www.Digg.com
www.StumbleUpon.com
www.ReddIt.com
www.Delicious.com
While surfing the web, you’re bound to come across articles, blogs, etc. that peak your interest. By “bookmarking” these sites, you send it back for other users to be able to see and read. You can also “rate” these sites with a “thumbs-up” or a “thumbs-down”, the more “thumbs-up” a page gets, the higher it goes into the sites ranking system. Pages move quickly here, so your bookmark may be there one minute, and gone the next!