Social networks weave a web to stay for good

Remember the days when everyone had a MySpace? Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe helped connect friends and family by creating the social networking Web site MySpace —"a place for friends."

Anderson created the idea for MySpace during the same time that he was working with DeWolfe in running an Internet marketing company that they started over six years ago. MySpace allows its users to share pictures and information about themselves. With its launch in 2003, MySpace quickly became the most popular social networking site to date.

The fad quickly died out with the rise of Facebook, now the world's largest social network with more than 300 million users. Facebook, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, came out in 2004—originally as a network only for Harvard students. Its popularity quickly rose when it opened its membership to include not only college students, but anyone over the age of 13 in 2006. Facebook quickly replaced MySpace as the new social networking site, just when MySpace seemed to be getting started.

Now only six years after its start, MySpace is not only losing popularity; they are losing some of its staff as well. According to New York Magazine, the company NewsCorp, which owns MySpace is paying $1 million a month for office space.

"MySpace suffered a drop in visitor traffic last month and is now less than half the size of its younger rival, Facebook. Three executives recently quit the one-time darling of the Internet and there is speculation its co-founders will follow," David Smith of The Observer said.

"MySpace has lost some luster to Facebook, and at the same time has come up short of News Corporation's financial projections," Tim Arango, of The New York Times stated. After the layoffs, MySpace will have approximately 1,000 workers a low number for a networking site.

"Aside from having an easy to navigate layout, the ability to keep tabs on friends, great content and amazing search capabilities, Facebook is utilizing one of the most powerful viral marketing strategies ever conceived. It's so simple, but yet extremely powerful.

"By implementing this viral marketing strategy, Facebook has become one the most popular websites online," Creator of Friend Inviter Vincent Newton said

Last September, the Web site gained its 300 millionth user. It also turned a profit for the first time since its creation six years ago. "Right now, MySpace has been attempting to compete to be the biggest social networking site, I don't think that's been successful. If MySpace is about your entertainment life, Facebook is about your whole life," analyst of Forrester Research Josh Bernoff said.

Sophomore Claudenia Pierre said, "I stopped using MySpace when I graduated high school because that's when [I discovered] Facebook. I still go on MySpace once a month to check if I have any new messages, but other than that I don't do anything on MySpace. I have Facebook now."

"MySpace's loss of status as the cool place to be is an object lesson in the notoriously fickle internet, where today's cultural icon is tomorrow's passing fad,"Smith also stated.

Aside from Facebook and MySpace, the prominent social networking Web site Twitter was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, which allows its users to send and read messages or "tweets." Since its creation, it has been quickly growing. Twitter can be a very helpful way for celebrities and even politicians to keep up with their fans or with the public and vice versa.

"Twitter, in other words, is precisely what you want it to be. It can be a business tool, a teenage time-killer, a research assistant, and a news source — whatever. There are no rules or at least none that apply equally well to everyone," David Pogue of The New York Times said. And it couldn't be any more convenient to update because everyone is able to update his or her profile through his or her cell phones.

Another Web site that is on the rise is Ning, created in Oct. 2005. Ning lets its members form their own "social-networking platforms" according to their "passions and pastimes." Facebook and MySpace may connect you to friends and family, but Ning connects you with people who have common interests with you, whether it is a music genre, book, movie or even a hobby.

It even connects people who feel passionate about the same political and social issues. The mission of Ning is, "It's a way to get people to organize and get people to meet around their passions."creator and CEO of Ning, Gia Bianchini said. As of Jan., Ning has had approximately 4.7 million visitors.

In April 2009, Ning added new features, such as a "real-time" activity feed that allows users to receive "up-to-the-minute reports." This is different from Twitter because it is not just about what simple acts other people are doing at every second of the day.

By looking at the rise and fall of past social networking sites and the many new sites that are being created,it is clear the future of social networking is far from over. In fact, it has only just begun.