Over the past few years more and more social networking sites have been developed. Some of them have grown into gigantic communities, fulfilling their purpose to allow users to communicate with friends, strangers or even seek job opportunities in the comfort of their homes. I have recently visited few social networking sites and compared them to each other. Some of the important names in social networking would be Myspace, Facebook, Friendster and LinkedIn. I became a member of a Facebook about two years ago. In the beginning, the website seemed to be open mostly to college students. Over the years, I could observe how rapidly the site has been growing as time progressed. Apart from the fact, that Facebook site became available to all users and has added various applications as music, dating or games in order to reach a broad range of population. It is also provided significant information for curious employers, who are looking for future candidates. While accessing other sites as Friendster, I notice that it can be viewed as a “mini Facebook” because it has a similar user’s interface and profile layout. In contrast, Friendster is much less popular than Facebook, and it has been using to meet "Stranger" rather than to socialize with friends. Another well known site that I want to mention is Myspace, which remains one of the biggest social network giants with 200 million members. It is also open to all comers. Moreover, it turns itself into the platform where other companies may launch their own applications and Internet services. Facebook and Myspace sites allow users to do different kind of things. For example, Myspace puts heavy emphasis on new media as music video and films that have not been a leading part of the Facebook experiences, which is more about communication efficiency. I believe that MySpace targeted younger members as teenagers, high school population and give them an ability to create desired background or upload the favorite songs. When it comes to social network sites it appears that everyone is obsessed with Facebook, which seems to become more popular than MySpace website. However, I also want to bring up another great site, Linkedln. It is a primary career network which is designed to capture all professionals from "cradle to grave". But, when compare it to the Facebook site it seems that Linkedln doesn't offer any multimedia or attractive graphics, but it is still an incredible system for recruiting and business networking.
