Social Networking

Online social networking tools provide a way for people to connect with each other for friendship, dating, business, mutual support or sharing information. Social Networking has been around since the earliest days, and people have networked at events and in person, yet not until the early 2000s did social networking take off as a popular online activity. The predecessor to social networking websites was instant messaging and online chat rooms.

Profiles

Most social networking sites are centered around users' personal profiles, which often include basic personal information and a photo as well as more detailed information about interests, values and goals. These profiles are also likely to display a public listing of each person's friendship connections, to make friends' friends more accessible.

Communication Tools

Social networking sites generally incorporate a number of communication tools within the network, including private messaging (email), instant messaging, chat, groups, forums, and video and photo sharing. These tools are designed to facilitate communication between current friends and to encourage reaching out to meet new ones.

Birds of a Feather

Some social networking sites are general, multi-purpose friendship sites where anyone can join and participate. Two of the most popular of these are MySpace and Facebook. There are also social networking sites revolving around almost every shared interest imaginable, such as deviantART (for artists), LinkedIn (for business connections) and Flixster (for movie lovers). Almost all social networking sites are designed to create communities of like minded users.