Social Networking Sites

    Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, and Twitter are all social networking sites that have gained enormous popularity over the years. Social networking has become a permanent fixation for a lot of people, and it seems virtually impossible for people in the world to live without it. For a lot of people, especially the younger generation, living without the social network sites in the world we live in today would be like depriving a human being of oxygen - it is our connection to the rest of the world.
    Each of these sites has its own specifications and differs in many aspects. All of them are competing to be the most visited site. Although each of them has its benefits and uses, I prefer facebook because it's more user friendly, and gives the subscriber a sense of control. The features on facebook encourage subscribers to engage in fun activities on the site. These features include poker, and various games. Facebook has millions of subscribers with more than 350 million subscribers compared to Friendster's 100 million subscribers. I noticed that Facebook has a great tagging system, and user-friendly applications. As a Facebook subscriber, you control who views your book by inviting or declining people who want to be friends with you. If you invite the person to view your book, the person gains access to everything you want them to have access to. However, if you don't invite them, they will not have access to your book. The ability to limit viewers gives the subscriber a sense of control. Also, Facebook does not clutter the site with advertisements which in my opinion is a breath of fresh air. The lay out of the site is easy on the eye - not much going on- and that to me is a breath of fresh air.
    Myspace on the other hand, is purely a social networking site where people socialize with friends and interesting people. Myspace is usually used to market brands, products, artists and promote events. You could listen to one's songs or view an artist work on there. Myspace is good marketing tool; however, Twitter and Facebook can boast of more subscribers and traffic to their sites. Messages sent out on Myspace are longer than the others especially Twitter. In all fairness, it's easier to personalize your profile in Myspace than twitter.
    Although twitter receives heavy traffic, and can boast of  190 million users, it has less connectivity options and applications than Facebook. Twitter is more disorganized than the other sites. However, it is very easy to use. Twitter is multi-lingual and thus available to people from all over the world. Twitter is a networking site, but also a micro-blogging site too. People go on there to share their views, opinions, experiences and expertise with their fellow tweeters. It's a great place for companies to communicate with their customers to get feedback on their products or services, and ultimately use that information to improve their products.
    Friendster, the last and surely the least,  is not as popular as twitter, facebook or even myspace. Facebook is newer and better than friendster, so people tend to gravitate towards facebook. Friendster needs to come up with a way to drive traffic to their site and then keep them there. When I logged into frienster, It felt like I was on an island all by myself with nothing exciting to do. They have to make it more user-friendly and come up with activities that will motivate subscribers to spend more time on the site. I had a hard time logging in because the site didn't recognize my email nor password even after entering my information correctly. I couldn't log out of friendster fast enough, and besides, a lot of people I know are not familiar with friendster. So, they have a lot of aggressive marketing to do if they want to be elevated to facebook status.