A

PROJECT STUDY REPORT

ON

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

2010-12

Submitted to: Ms. PADMA SHARMA

Submitted by: PANKAJ KR. SINHA MBA, 2nd SEM.

PREFACE

Any technological advancement presents social scientists with an opportunity to gain insight into human behaviour and the innovation of online social networking has presented those of us interested in understanding the uses of social networking sites and their contribution in development of youngster and also to review how these social networking sites are developing in getting fame worldwide. Social networking sites offer people new and varied ways to communicate via the internet, whether through their PC or their mobile phone. They allow people to easily and simply create their own online page or profile and to construct and display an online network of contacts, often called friends. Users of these sites can communicate via their profile both with their friends and with people outside their list of contacts.

The rapid growth of social networking sites in recent years indicates that they are now a mainstream communications technology for many people.

Acknowledgement

I take proud privilege in extending my sincere thanks and gratitude to the management of Arya Institute Of Engg. & Technology.

I would like to thank to Ms. PADMA SHARMA our teacher for guiding me throughout seminar report as well as for providing me the valuable support.

I owe a great debt to my family and friends who have been a source of inspiration to me.

PANKAJ KR. SINHA

INTRODUCTION

Wikipedia states that a social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations (Social network, 2007). With the rapid growth of people who use or have access to the Internet, social networking websites are a must for the Internet community to stay in touch with each other. Social networking web sites help people keep in touch with old friends, make new friends, distribute new data or product, and many more aspects of our everyday lives.

The first official social networking web site was Classmates.com which was founded in 1995 (Social Network, 2007). What followed was a slow but steady growth in numbers of social networking websites to the overwhelming number of sites we have today. The reason that social networking websites work so well is that, like their inception, they start of small and then grow exponentially. The site starts off with a few people who then tell their friends about the site, then those friends tell their friends about the site and soon the site is a huge database of users connected by friends, acquaintances, or just random people. The web sites are made to allow users to create a "profile" describing themselves and to exchange public or private messages and list other users or groups they are connected to in some way. (Social Network 2007).

Most social networking websites are often designed to fit a certain type of community such as the college community being mirrored by Facebook.com or a music/party community mirrored by MySpace.com. With the rapid growth of social networking web sites and their global scale usage, whatever one feels concerning social networking web sites is irrelevant because social networking web sites are on a popularity rise and are here to stay.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The social networking sites are gaining a lot of popularity these days with almost all of the educated youth using one or the other such site. These have played a crucial role in bridging boundaries and crossing the seas and enabling them to communicate on a common platform. It has become a popular and a potential mean for them to stay friends with the existing ones and to grow up their social circle at least in terms of acquaintances.

The question regarding the safety, privacy and the legal issues have been cropping up all this time. Through this research we try to find out the impact of these networking sites on the personal and professional lives of people using them. It is a very subjective question to answer and is very opinion based and the same is reflected in the research methodology adopted by us.

The report is initiated with the definition of the objective followed with the research methodology used along with the research design, sample size, methods used for the purpose of conducting survey. It also incorporates the sampling frame and the data collection procedure.

Subsequent to this is the Introduction to the networking sites along with a brief description of the most popular sites. Then the issues of concern which have come up along the way in all these years since these sites gained popularity are discussed. The various issues and concerns of the respondents are also incorporated there. The next part of the research has the literature surveys which are the articles we took up from the published reports. We then analyzed and interpreted the data at length. The last part deals with the suggestions and recommendations that the group has come up with after carefully analyzing and incorporating the opinion of all concerned.

CONTENT

S.NO. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

Title What is social networking Definition of S.N.S History How does S.N.S works Examples of SNS Emerging trend in social networking Why social networking Utilization in business Influence on life style SNS in india Issues S.N.S Social networking and younger generation Social networking site act on adolescences and teenager Advantage and disadvantage Limitation Conclusion Suggestion

P.NO. 1 2 3 7 9 12 19 23 25 26 26 30 33 36 37 38 39

WHAT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING?

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the internet, such as email and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. The main types of social networking services are those which contain category places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with selfdescription pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with Facebook and Twitter widely used worldwide, Nexopia (mostly in Canada); Bebo, VKontakte, Hi5, Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), Draugiem.lv (mostly in Latvia), StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Tuenti (mostly in Spain), Nasza-Klasa (mostly in Poland), Decayenne, Tagged, XING, Badoo and Skyrock in parts of Europe; Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America and Friendster, Mixi, Multiply, Orkut, Wretch, renren and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands and Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Orkut are very popular in India. There have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source Initiative). Although some of the largest social networks were founded on the notion of digitizing real world connections, many networks focus on categories from books and music to non-profit business to motherhood as ways to provide both services and community to individuals with shared interests.

SOCIAL NETWORK SITES (SNS): A DEFINITION

We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to: (1) Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. While we use the term "social network site" to describe this phenomenon, the term "social networking sites" also appears in public discourse, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. "Networking" emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. While networking is possible on these sites, it is not the primary practice on many of them, nor is it what differentiates them from other forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC). What makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between "latent ties" (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some offline connection. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them "social network sites."

A History of Social Network Sites

The Early Years
According to the definition above, the first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and, beginning in 1998, surf the Friends lists. Each of these features existed in some form before SixDegrees, of course. Profiles existed on most major dating sites and many community sites. AIM and ICQ buddy lists supported lists of Friends, although those Friends were not visible to others. Classmates.com allowed people to affiliate with their high school or college and surf the network for others who were also affiliated, but users could not create profiles or list Friends until years later. SixDegrees was the first to combine these features.SixDegrees promoted itself as a tool to help people connect with and send messages to others. While SixDegrees attracted millions of users, it failed to become a sustainable business and, in 2000, the service closed. Looking back, its founder believes that SixDegrees was simply ahead of its time .While people were already flocking to the Internet, most did not have extended networks of friends who were online. Early adopters complained that there was little to do after accepting Friend requests, and most users were not interested in meeting strangers. From 1997 to 2001, a number of community tools began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly articulated Friends. AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente allowed users to create personal, professional, and dating profilesusers could identify Friends on their personal profiles without seeking approval for those connections . Likewise, shortly after its launch in 1999, LiveJournal listed one-directional connections on user pages. LiveJournal's creator suspects that he fashioned these Friends after instant messaging buddy lists on LiveJournal, people mark others as Friends to follow their journals and manage privacy settings. The next wave of SNSs began when Ryze.com was launched in 2001 to help people leverage their business networks. Ryze's founder reports that he first introduced the site to his friendsprimarily members of the San Francisco business and technology community, including the entrepreneurs and investors behind many future SNSs . In particular, the people behind Ryze, Tribe.net, LinkedIn, and Friendster were tightly entwined personally and professionally. They

believed that they could support each other without competing . In the end, Ryze never acquired mass popularity, Tribe.net grew to attract a passionate niche user base, LinkedIn became a powerful business service, and Friendster became the most significant, if only as "one of the biggest disappointments in Internet history"

Figure 1. Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNSs and dates when community sites re-launched with SNS features

HOW DOES SNS WORK

While SNSs have implemented a wide variety of technical features, their backbone consists of visible profiles that display an articulated list of Friends who are also users of the system. Profiles are unique pages where one can type oneself into being. After joining an SNS, an individual is asked to fill out forms containing a series of questions. The profile is generated using the answers to these questions, which typically include descriptors such as age, location, interests, and an "about me" section. Most sites also encourage users to upload a profile photo. Some sites allow users to enhance their profiles by adding multimedia content or modifying their profile's look and feel. Others, such as Facebook, allow users to add modules ("Applications") that enhance their profile. The visibility of a profile varies by site and according to user discretion. By default, profiles on Orkut or hi5.com are crawled by search engines, making them visible to anyone, regardless of whether or not the viewer has an account. Alternatively, sites like MySpace allow users to choose whether they want their profile to be public or "Friends only." Facebook takes a different approachby default, users who are part of the same "network" can view each other's profiles, unless a profile owner has decided to deny permission to those in their network. Structural variations around visibility and access are one of the primary ways that SNSs differentiate themselves from each other. After joining a social network site, users are prompted to identify others in the system with whom they have a relationship. The label for these relationships differs depending on the site popular terms include "Friends," "Contacts," and "Fans." Most SNSs require bi-directional confirmation for Friendship, but some do not. These onedirectional ties are sometimes labelled as "Fans" or "Followers," but many sites call these Friends as well. The term "Friends" can be misleading, because the connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday vernacular sense, and the reasons people connect are varied .The public display of connections is a crucial component of SNSs. The Friends list contains links to each Friend's profile, enabling viewers to traverse the network graph by clicking through the Friends lists. On most sites, the list of Friends is visible to anyone who is permitted to view the profile, although there are exceptions.

Most SNSs also provide a mechanism for users to leave messages on their Friends' profiles. This feature typically involves leaving "comments," although sites employ various labels for this feature. In addition, SNSs often have a private messaging feature similar to webmail. While both private messages and comments are popular on most of the major SNSs, they are not universally available.Beyond profiles, Friends, comments, and private messaging, SNSs vary greatly in their features and user base. Some have photo-sharing or video-sharing capabilities; others have builtin blogging and instant messaging technology. There are mobile-specific SNSs (e.g., Dodgeball), but some web-based SNSs also support limited mobile interactions (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, and Cyworld). Many SNSs target people from specific geographical regions or linguistic groups, although this does not always determine the site's constituency. Orkut, for example, was launched in the United States with an English-only interface, but Portuguese-speaking Brazilians quickly became the dominant user group. Some sites are designed with specific ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, political, or other identity-driven categories in mind. There are even SNSs for dogs (Dogster) and cats (Catster), although their owners must manage their profiles.While SNSs are often designed to be widely accessible, many attract homogeneous populations initially, so it is not uncommon to find groups using sites to segregate themselves by nationality, age, educational level, or other factors that typically segment society, even if that was not the intention of the designers.

EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

WWW.ORKUT.COM
Orkut is an Internet social network service run by Google and named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Bykkkten. It claims to be designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Similar to Facebook, Friendster and MySpace, Orkut goes a step further by permitting the creation of easy-to-set-up simple forums (called "communities") of users. Since October 2006, Orkut has permitted users to create accounts without an invitation. Orkut is the most visited website in Brazil, being more visited than Google Brazil, number 2 on the list. In total visits, Google is probably still more popular since it appears as the second (the Brazilian version) and seventh most visited site (the international version). The initial target market for orkut was the United States, but the majority of its users are in Brazil. In fact, as of November 2007, 62.9% of the traffic comes from Brazil, followed by 19.2% from India. In December 2007, Google dropped orkut from the drop-down menu of its international homepage. WWW.FACEBOOK.COM Facebook is another example of social networking site. Developed by sophomore Mark Zuckerberg of Harvard University in 2004, Facebook.com was originally TheFacebook.com (Facebook, 2007). Purchasing the domain name of

Facebook.com in August of 2005 for $200,000 the site was originally developed for college and university students as a way to connect with each other (Facebook, 2007). Hosting the most members for a college based social networking site, Facebook.com is also the number one site for uploading pictures, boasting several million uploads daily. Since its inception, Facebook.com has now been opened to anyone with a valid email address and offers its members options of joining the millions of networks of people with similar interests. It is said that 80% of Facebook.com users check their account daily and that 93% of Facebook.com users

check their account at least monthly (Facebook, 2007) Facebook.com generates its revenue from advertisement since it boasts a huge number of registered users. WWW.MYSPACE.COM MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally. It is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media; in turn, the owner of Fox Interactive and therefore MySpace, News Corporation, is headquartered in New York City. According to Alexa Internet, MySpace is currently the world's sixth most popular English-language website and the sixth most popular website in any language, and the third most popular website in the United States, though it has topped the chart on various weeks. The service has gradually gained more popularity than similar websites to achieve nearly 80 percent of visits to online social networking websites.

The company employs 300 staff and does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation. With the 100 millionth account being created on August 9, 2006, in the Netherlands and a news story claiming 106 million accounts on September 8, 2006, the site reportedly attracts new registrations at a rate of 230,000 per day. As of December 18, 2007, there are over 300 million accounts. WWW.HI5.COM Hi5 is a social networking website, which, throughout 2007, was one of the 25 most visited sites on the web. The company was founded in 2002 by Ramu Yalamanchi who is also the current CEO. As of December 2007, hi5 had over 98 million members. In hi5, users create an online profile in order to show information such as interests, age and hometown and upload user pictures where users can post comments. hi5 also allows the user to create personal photo albums and set up a music player in the profile. Users can also send friend requests via e-mail to other

users. When a person receives a friend request, he or she may accept or decline it, or block the user altogether. If the user accepts another user as a friend, the two will be connected directly or in the 1st degree. The user will then appear on the person's friend list and vice-versa. Some users opt to make their profiles available for everyone on hi5 to view. Other users exercise the option to make their profile viewable only to those people who are in their network. The network of friends consists of a user's direct friends (1st degree), the friends of those direct friends (2nd degree) and the friends of the friends of direct friends (3rd degree).

Emerging Trends in Social Networking: The Integration of Social Networks

Social networking sites are a growing phenomenon partly due to the way in which they increase the efficiency of users communication. Posted for the masses are members personal profiles that may take the form of text, images, and music for other members to enjoy, comment on, and share. Users can be social at the time of their choosing, independent of the initiating communicator. The one-on-one communication of email, text messaging, and phone is outpaced considerably by social networking platforms. Friend Connect hopes to become the product that anchors all major social networking websites together. Internet conglomerate Google has staked its claim to a prime piece of social networking real estate with the creation of Google Friend Connect. Google Friend Connect intends to do exactly what their name states connect. Friend Connect aims to bring the built-in functionality of interactive social websites to any website owner. Friend Connect promises to be more than simply another flat social networking site; Google designed Friend Connect as a forum that allows for any single website to become a hub for social networking or, at the least, to utilize features and applications that were previously exclusive only to typical social networking sites already in existence. Additionally, Friend Connect hopes to become the product that anchors all major social networking websites together. Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn are distinct entities in and of themselves. Users can interact with other users on each specific website creating the need for separate names, passwords, and accounts. Social networking sites have varying degrees of diversity among their demographic. Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix, a company that measures internet audiences for advertisers, has stated that MySpace has the broadest appeal across age ranges, Facebook has created a niche among the college crowd, Friendster attracts a higher percentage of adults, and Xanga is most popular among younger teens. LinkedIn is geared towards professionals, seeking to forge personal and professional connections. With Friend Connect, Google hopes to interconnect the preexistent social networking websites while introducing social networking aspects to other less traditional social sites. Users of existing social networking sites may find it refreshing to sneak outside of the walled garden created by the early oligopoly of the social networking industry. With Google Friend Connect, they will be able to check out photos on Facebook, comment on a friends LinkedIn updates, check out a YouTube video, and read their pals latest MySpace blog with the use of only one username and password, under one account. Web site owners, as well, may find Friend Connect useful. By simply adding a snippet of HTML code into their website, they can gain features such as bulletins, blogs, message posting, video sharing, and more. Musicians can share music through applications such as iLike, and freelancers can blog to their friends on multiple sites at one time.

According to Google, the Google Friend Connect will allow website owners to insert social features to make any app, any site, any friends, and a reality. A May 12th, 2008 press release announcing the preview of Google Friend Connect states that visitors of any site using Google Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends. So how does an application such as Google Friend Connect break down barriers and engage users? It encourages users to interact across the internet, and not just on one specific website or another. It can drive up traffic across the internet, and increase actual interaction with website coders doing little work on their part. Google Friend Connect strives to shy away from the static version of the existing social networking sites. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.com thinks that regardless of the Google Friend product, users will eventually gravitate toward the one site that they like the best. So how will Google Friend be effective in their long-term goals? One way is to bring on partners. MySpace, for example, partners with Twitter, eBay, Yahoo, and PhotoBucket. Facebook is partnered with Digg, among others. Google has partnered with smaller social networks like Plaxo and orkut, and have incorporated Google Talk, as well but they have yet to announce any impressive partners for the Google Friend Connect product. Google has launched not only Google Friend Connect but also Data Availability and Facebook Connect all products aimed to securely send personal data to third party applications. Google formally introduced Friend Connect to the world on May 12th with a preview. The official website (www.google.com/friendconnect) is still in preview mode but lists five example sites that employ Google Friend Connect gadgets. An educational Bible quiz site, indeed rock band My First Earthquakes site, musician Ingrid Michelsons site, a guacamole cooking site, and a filmmakers site are functioning examples of the Google Friend Connect tools that can integrate users across the web. Integration of sites over the World Wide Web is one of the main goals and Google promises a lot more to websites. Whether Google will succeed with its objectives remains to be seen. Typically, users are wary of websites that store personal data or give their information to third-party companies. While Google promises that Friend Connect users are in charge of what is shared, and that Google does not permanently store any user data, the layman may still be suspicious. Although Friend Connect only reads a very small amount of data from one social networking site to the next it may still enough to make some new users nervous. However, veterans of sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and the like, are already accustomed to the concept. Facebook has a history of using applications to appeal to users while simultaneously incorporating third-party websites. MySpace just recently started doing the same. Social networking sites rely on traffic and advertising for their revenue so integration of them might be key. MySpace users the core demographic being the high school through twentysomething crowd are used to subtle advertising along the interface. With the addition of applications and the future possibility of incorporating Google Friend Connect, MySpace users may be exposed to worlds beyond the realm of their space.

While Google has virtually monopolized the world of online searching, Facebook and MySpace are giants in the world of social networking. Facebooks value is estimated on a high end at 15 Billion, based on Microsofts investment $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in it. MySpace was sold to Rupert Murdochs News Corporation for $580 million in 2006 but is now estimated to have a value of about $6 billion, depending on who you ask and various valuation methods. LinkedIn, with its 20 million users is valued at close to $1 billion, having recently raised 53 million in funding. Google does own social networking sites the aforementioned Plaxo and orkut and the idea of developing a unique approach is not a new concept to Google. In August of 2008, Google signed a deal with MySpace for advertising and to be MySpaces official search engine. With the upcoming introduction of products like Facebook Connect and Google Connect, the World Wide Webs social networks will become increasingly integrated. As the increase in popularity of social networking is on a constant rise,new uses for the technology are constantly being observed. At the forefront of emerging trends in social networking sites is the concept of "real time" and "location based." Real time allows users to contribute content, which is then broadcasted as it is being uploaded - the concept is similar to live television broadcasts. Twitter set the trend for "real time" services, where users can broadcast to the world what they are doing, or what is on their minds within a 140 character limit. Facebook followed suit with their "Live Feed" where users' activities are streamed as soon as it happens. While Twitter focuses on words, Clixtr, another real time service, focuses on group photo sharing where users can update their photo streams with photos while at an event. Friends and nearby users can contribute their own photos and comments to that event stream, thus contributing to the "real time" aspect of broadcasting photos and comments as it is being uploaded. In the location based social networking space, foursquare gained popularity as it allowed for users to "checkin" to places that they are frequenting at that moment. Gowalla is another such service which functions in much the same way that Foursquare does, leveraging the GPS in phones to create a location based user experience. Clixtr, though in the real time space, is also a location based social networking site since events created by users are automatically geo-tagged, and users can view events occurring nearby through the Clixtr iPhone app. Recently, Yelp announced its entrance into the location based social networking space through check-ins with their mobile app; whether or not this becomes detrimental to Foursquare or Gowalla is yet to be seen as it is still considered a new space in the internet technology industry. One popular use for this new technology is social networking between businesses. Companies have found that social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great ways to build their brand image. According to Jody Nimetz, author of Marketing Jive, there are five major uses for businesses and social media: to create brand awareness, as an online reputation management tool, for recruiting, to learn about new technologies and competitors, and as a lead gen tool to intercept potential prospects., These companies are able to drive traffic to their own online sites while encouraging their consumers and clients to have discussions on how to improve or change products or services. One other use that is being discussed is the use of Social Networks in the Science communities. (Julia Porter Liebeskind et) . have published a study on how New Biotechnology Firms are using social networking sites to share exchanges in scientific knowledge. They state in their study that by sharing information and knowledge with one another, they are able "increase both their learning and their flexibility in ways that would not be possible within a self-contained hierarchical organization." Social networking is allowing scientific groups to expand their knowledge base and share ideas, and without these new means of communicating their theories might become "isolated and irrelevant".

Social networks are also being used by teachers and students as a communication tool. Because many students are already using a wide-range of social networking sites, teachers have begun to familiarize themselves with this trend and are now using it to their advantage. Teachers and professors are doing everything from creating chat-room forums and groups to extend classroom discussion to posting assignments, tests and quizzes, to assisting with homework outside of the classroom setting. Social networks are also being used to foster teacher-parent communication. These sites make it possible and more convenient for parents to ask questions and voice concerns without having to meet face-to-face.

Why Social Networking?

Through social networking, people can use networks of online friends and group memberships to keep in touch with current friends, reconnect with old friends or create reallife friendships through similar interests or groups. Besides establishing important social relationships, social networking members can share their interests with other likeminded members by joining groups and forums. Some networking can also help members find a job or establish business contacts. Most social networking websites also offer additional features. In addition to blogs and forums, members can express themselves by designing their profile page to reflect their personality. The most popular extra features include music and video sections. Members can read bios of their favorite music artists from the artist's profile page as well as listen to their favorite songs and watch music videos. The video section can include everything from membergenerated videos from hundreds of subjects to TV clips and movie trailers.

What to Look For in Social Networking?

The phenomenon of online social networkingmade extremely popular by MySpace.com , has evolved to include more than the teenage stereotype looking to expand his/her network of online friends. People of all ages and backgrounds have discovered that they can enrich their lives through the contacts they make on a social networking website.Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to evaluate Social Networking websites. Profiles The heart and soul of social networking sites are users personal profiles. Its like their own Internet sanctuary, a place where they can express their thoughts and feelings, post photographs and show off their network of friends. The most popular social network websites put a strong emphasis on the users profile, making it easy to use yet still reflective of the users personality.

Security The Internet can be a dangerous place to post personal information. All social networks should provide the ability to set profiles to private in some way or another. Additionally they should have the ability to report and block users. Networking Features A good social network goes above and beyond just allowing users to post profiles and update pictures. Additional features should include music sections, video uploads, groups and more. Search The object of a social network is to find friends and expand relationships. Top social networking websites allows members to search for other members in a safe and easy to use environment. Common search functions include search by name, city, school and email address. Help/Support Most social network sites are self-explanatory. However, in the off-chance a user needs help there needs to be some way to contact the webmaster or answers in an FAQs section. Legitimate Friend Focus The growing trend for social networks is to communicate and keep in touch with people you already know. No one wants to be inundated with unsolicited spam friend requests. The best social network sites keep profiles and search options private enough that the only people that can find you are the ones actually looking for users in their own school or neighborhood networks. Even with a completely public profile, users shouldnt be bothered with more than a couple of unsolicited comments or messages.

Rank Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor

#1 Facebook

#2 MySpace

#3 hi5

#4 Orkut

Overall Rating Profiles Security Networking Features Search Help/Support Legitimate Friend Focus Minimum Age to Join Percentage of users Under 18 International Community Multilingual Multilingual Advertisement Free Profile or (WYSIWYG) Custom Skins Customize Code (HTML or CSS) Personalized URL Photos Max. Photo Size Post Comments Friends 13 36 14 33 13 24 18 4

4MB

5MB

2MB

10MB

Blog/Journal Applications Privacy Settings Block Users Report Spam Report Abuse Safety Tips ChatRooms Instant Messaging Tags Bulletins Groups Groups (Number of Categories) Create a Group Forums Mail Grab/Copy/Share Photos Mobile Music Music Videos Commercial Videos Personal Videos Games Classifieds Events Books By Name By Email Address By School By City/ Zip Code By Interests By Keyword Browse Without Membership eMail Support FAQ

23

34

22

28

UTILIZATION IN BUSINESS

There are many ways that business can use social networking web sites to their advantage but we are going to focus on three. 1.) The first aspect of a business that could use a social networking website for would be the hiring of employees. Such sites as Monster.com actually help many people searching for jobs and many companies looking for employees to find each other. Its as simple as creating your own resume and putting it out there. Monster.com then takes your resume and compares it to the needs and wants that companies have posted on the web site and connects the company with people who meet or exceed their posted standards. This a lot faster and involves a more broad spectrum of resources for which a company can use to find the perfect employee. 2.) Another aspect of business affected by social networking websites is marketing. With the millions of people that use social networking web sites, what better way to market your product then by buying space on those web sites? Whether its through banners or links millions of people will view your ads should they be placed on a social networking website. An example is that of 1up.com. Through its great reputation to gamers many gaming companies are willing to spend thousands of dollars for advertising space since they know that gamers who view the web site will most likely learn about their product. Not only is online advertising more effective than commercial advertising such as TV ads and magazines, its also more cost effective and reaches far more people than other forms of advertising. An example of the effectiveness of internet advertising is YouTube.com in which experts have estimated that Given its traffic levels, video streams and page views, some have calculated that YouTube's potential revenues could be in the millions per month. (YouTube, 2007) 3.) A third aspect of business that is affected by social networking websites is that of fair pricing. With so many businesses out there creating virtually the same product its easy for one to get lost in the broad spectrum of products. With social networking

websites people can get advice from experts, gain knowledge of product through others who have used it, and get reviews on nearly anything that is mass produced today. This in turn is also great for businesses. With all this information out there concerning products its easy for a company to look through it and see what customers want and for how much. This in turn leads to better products being made to suit the customers needs and wants.

Influence of networking sites on lifestyle:

Social networking sites have some or the other sort of influence on the lifestyle of the people. While some people did not feel that it influences the lifestyle as they use these networking sites just for connecting with friends and did not feel its influence on their lifestyle. On the other hand, those who feel that it has some influence on their lifestyle had a lot to share. The responses suggest that some people have got addicted to the networking sites and use them more often and as such their life is completely influenced by these. People find it trendy to use these networking sites and being a member of the sites is considered trendy and in vogue thing. Some people surf these sites to interact with people with similar preferences and it helps in their decisionmaking ability. They take the views and suggestions of the people before taking any such decisions and feel quite comfortable with it. Some people get knowledge about latest trends in fashion, electronic gadgets etc.The most staggering influence of these networking sites for some people is the use of abbreviated words like d for the and likewise. They tend to use the similar words in their day to day life and even in official communication and often have suffered due to this. For students, it often comes across during exams. Some people use abusive words to vent out their feelings on these networking sites and the same has been seen in their personal life of late. Certain people often use communities to dishonour their teachers and bosses or use bad-mouthing words for even celebrities and sports stars.

SNS IN INDIA :
In all the social networking phenomenon in India is small compared to the US (Indian social networking websites today claim a user base of around 3 million registered users) while MySpace, which has 106 million users and Orkut which has 67 million have far greater numbers. Clearly, Indian firms have a lot of work ahead of them in order to catch up. However, Siddhartha Roy, CEO, BigAdda, says optimistically: We are early on the curve. Alok Mittal, MD, Canaan Partners, a venture capital firm, says: When you put that in context, Indian social networking websites are in their infancy. The break-even point is longer, but once they attain a critical mass of 40 million users, then VC firms will start investing in them. Navin Mittal, CEO, fropper.com, says: With the Indian Internet user-base negligible compared to the US or China, these are very early days. The owner of the blog Trak.in does a great job of explaining the benefits of social networking for India and what it means for consumers and businesses.

Issues
On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns about users giving out too much personal information and the threat of sexual predators. Users of these services also need to be aware of data theft or viruses. However, large services, such as MySpace and Netlog, often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personal information in the hands of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a profile to be produced on an individual's behavior on which decisions, detrimental to an individual, may be taken. Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of datainformation that was altered or removed by the user may in fact be retained and/or passed to 3rd parties. This danger was highlighted when the controversial social networking site Quechup harvested e-mail addresses from users' e-mail accounts for use in a spamming operation. In medical and scientific research, asking subjects for information about their behaviors is normally strictly scrutinized by institutional review boards, for example, to ensure that adolescents and their parents have informed consent. It is not clear whether the same rules apply to researchers who collect data from social networking sites. These sites often contain a great deal of data that is hard to obtain via traditional means. Even though the data are public, republishing it in a research paper might be considered invasion of privacy. Privacy on social networking sites can be undermined by many factors. For example, users may disclose personal information, sites may not take adequate steps to protect user privacy, and third parties frequently use information posted on social networks for a variety of purposes. "For the Next generation, social networking sites have become the preferred forum for social interactions, from posturing and role playing to simply sounding off. However, because such forums are relatively easy to access, posted content can be reviewed by anyone with an interest in the users' personal information".

Following plans by the UK government to monitor traffic on social networks schemes similar to E-mail jamming have been proposed for networks such as Twitter and Facebook. These would involve "friending" and "following" large numbers of random people to thwart attempts at network analysis. There has been a trend for social networking sites to send out only 'positive' notifications to users. For example sites such as Bebo, Facebook, and Myspace will not send notifications to users when they are removed from a person's friends list. Similarly Bebo will send out a notification if a user is moved to the top of another user's friends list but no notification is sent if they are moved down the list. This allows users to purge undesirables from their list extremely easily and often without confrontation since a user will rarely notice if one person disappears from their friends list. It also enforces the general positive atmosphere of the website without drawing attention to unpleasant happenings such as friends falling out, rejection and failed relationships. Many social networking services, such as Facebook, provide the user with a choice of who can view their profile. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from accessing their information. Parents who want to access their child's MySpace or Facebook account have become a big problem for teenagers who do not want their profile seen by their parents. By making their profile private, teens can select who may see their page, allowing only people added as "friends" to view their profile and preventing unwanted viewing of the profile by parents. Teens are constantly trying to create a structural barrier between their private life and their parents. To information on a certain social networking service account, the social networking sites require you to login or provide a password. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from adding, changing, or removing personal information, pictures, and/or other data. The relative freedom afforded by social networking services has caused concern regarding the potential of its misuse by individual patrons. In October 2006, a fake Myspace profile created in the name of Josh Evans by Lori Janine Drew led to the suicide of Megan Meier. The event incited global concern regarding the use of social networking services for bullying purposes In July 2008, a Briton, Grant Raphael, was ordered to pay a total of GBP 22,000 (about USD $44,000) for libel and breach of privacy. Raphael had posted a fake page on Facebook purporting to be that of a former school friend Matthew Firsht, with whom Raphael had fallen out in 2000. The page falsely claimed that Firsht was homosexual and that he was dishonest. At the same time, genuine use of social networking services has been treated with suspicion on the ground of the services' misuse. In September 2008, the profile of Australian Facebook user Elmo Keep was banned by the site's administrators on the grounds that it violated the site's terms of use. Keep is one of several users of Facebook who were banned from the site on the presumption that their names aren't real, as they bear resemblance the names of characters like Sesame Street's Elmo. Citizens and governments have been concerned by a misuse by child and teenagers of social networking services, particularly in relation to online sexual predators. A certain number of actions have been engaged by governments to better understand the problem and find some solutions. A 2008 panel concluded that technological fixes such as age verification and scans are relatively ineffective means of apprehending online predators. In May 2010, a child pornography social networking site with hundreds of members was dismantled by law

enforcement. It was deemed "the largest crimes against children case brought anywhere by anyone." Main article: Troll (Internet) A common misuse of social networking sites such as Facebook is that it is occasionally used to emotionally abuse individuals. Such actions are often referred to as trolling. It is not rare for confrontations in the real world to be translated online.[citation needed] Trolling can occur in many different forms, such as (but not limited to) defacement of deceased person(s) tribute pages, name calling, playing online pranks on volatile individuals and controversial comments with the intention to cause anger and cause arguments. Trolling is not to be confused with cyber-bullying. Online bullying (aka "Cyber-bullying") is a relatively common occurrence and it can often result in emotional trauma for the victim. Depending on the networking outlet, up to 39% of users admit to being cyber-bullied. Danah Boyd, a researcher of social networks quotes a teenager in her article, Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites. The teenager expresses frustration towards networking sites like MySpace because it causes drama and too much emotional stress. There are not many limitations as to what individuals can post when online. Inherently individuals are given the power to post offensive remarks or pictures that could potentially cause a great amount of emotional pain for another individual. Interpersonal communication has been a growing issue as more and more people have turned to social networking as a means of communication."Benniger (1987) describes how mass media has gradually replaced interpersonal communication as a socializing force. Further, social networking sites have become popular sites for youth culture to explore themselves, relationships, and share cultural artifacts". A Privacy Paradox Many teens and social networking users may be harming their interpersonal communication by using sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Stated by Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University Neuroscientist, "My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment."

Number of US social network patent applications published per year and patents issued per year There has been rapid growth in the number of US patent applications that cover new technologies related to social networking. The number of published applications has been growing rapidly since 2003. There are now over 3500 published applications. As many as 7000 applications may be currently on file including those that haven't been published yet.

Only about 400 of these applications have issued as patents, however, largely due to the multi-year backlog in examination of business method patents and the difficulty in getting these patent applications allowed. It has been reported that social networking patents are important for the establishment of new start up companies. It has also been reported, however, that social networking patents inhibit innovation. On June 15, 2010, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded Amazon.com a patent for "Social Networking System" based on its ownership of Planet All.[50] The patent describes a Social Networking System as A networked computer system provides various services for assisting users in locating, and establishing contact relationships with, other users. For example, in one embodiment, users can identify other users based on their affiliations with particular schools or other organizations. The system also provides a mechanism for a user to selectively establish contact relationships or connections with other users, and to grant permissions for such other users to view personal information of the user. The system may also include features for enabling users to identify contacts of their respective contacts. In addition, the system may automatically notify users of personal information updates made by their respective contacts. The patent has garnered attention due to its similarity to the popular social networking site Facebook.

Social networking and younger generation/adolescences

There is an element of addictiveness in these sites and the youth are indeed getting endeared more and more into this addiction. The most appealing thing among these sites is that they provide a platform for the individuals to express their views, gives them the freedom of choice and expression... from anti-war campaigns to global warming issues, from Harry potter fan clubs to Osama bin laden hate clubs. there is everything for everyone to share and speak about. What else could be more appealing than the thought of being heard not just by your group of friends but to the whole wide world? And that is where I feel these sites are here to stay. It just emphasizes the fact that man is a social being and shall always remain so. One of the most commonly asked questions today is are you on Facebook? or did you check out the latest pics on my profile? It is amazing how social networks have completely changed peoples habits, becoming a must-visit Web destination for all. In fact, if you find a friend not using any of the popular social networking services, it seems strange. Thoughts like is he/she living in todays world and how can he/she afford to miss such a great thing when the entire world is buzzing around it start coming to your mind the moment you realize your friends absence on the site.

Such is the power of social networking today. And it only seems to grow stronger and stronger in the future. Just recently, Facebook achieved another milestone by completing five successful years over the Web. Started in 2004, Facebook had only a handful of users in its network initially, mostly comprising of Harvard students. However, with time it grew rapidly to become the leading social network throughout the world. So, what led to its success? One of the biggest reasons is word-of-mouth or rather word-of-mouse publicity. People today cant imagine living without social networking. It has become a daily routine no matter where you are. Also, it is interesting to know how mobile phones are shaping the use of social networks today. Those who do not get enough time to access their desktops often use a mobile device to stay connected with their friends. Whats even more interesting is that adults are using social networks more than the younger demographic today, something which has never happened before the last year or so. But there are also people who do not support this growing trend mainly because of its negative impact on the society. The argument is that social networking is slowly taking over face-to-face communication, as people prefer expressing themselves online. Communication has become rapid, but at the cost of personal interaction. If you observe carefully, the extent of outdoor physical activity has also declined in case of school going children. As social networking becomes a topic of discussion for youngsters, most of them want to be alive and kicking on the network and share their likes and dislikes with people. This has given software developers another reason to come up with innovative applications in tune with the contemporary lifestyle, which is indeed worth appreciating. However, problem arises when youngsters overuse these applications and compromise their social life by constantly updating their profile to let people know how cool they are. This is also one of the main reasons why personal interaction has been affected to a great extent.

The whole discussion here is not to demean social networking. It is doing what it has to do connect people with their loved ones. But whether to overuse it and affect our social life or not is in our hands. Let technology not master you. Talk to people personally or over phone, get engaged in face-to-face communication and use social networking within limits to balance your life. Social networks are definitely a boon to the society, but too much of it can affect our social progress. Keeping in touch with the knowns, whether relatives or friends or someone else, seems to be a difficult task to every working person, whether a student, a businessman or some officer, these days! So whats the solution to the problem? Social networking Sites! Yes, the Social Networking Sites like Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter.. Etc are a powerful medium to stay in touch with your friends, far away relatives, old teachers and even find your long-lost chaddi-buddies. Isnt that great!!! Might be a Yes for some and a topic of discussion (and worry) for the others!!?? But whats the matter of worry? The answer is that such social networking sites are a platform for making friends, joining groups and networks, sharing pictures and videos, posting scraps and messages etc, which might not be a good deal for the kids, pre-teens and teens even. There might be anti-social elements active on such sites and privacy & security are also topics of concern on these sites. It is upon the user himself/herself that how carefully and judiciously he/she uses this resource. Parents and teachers may also play a vital role in guiding under-18s about such sites. It is not like that no one should use such sites, but the betterment is in the careful use of these networks!

How is social networking sites act on adolescences?

As the technology of the world advances so does the internet and social networking websites is one of the creations of this advancement. Social networking websites are now getting popular day by day because more and more people are on the move and they go away from their countries or houses. They need people with whom they can socialize and also they need to stay in touch with all those whom they have left behind. The best solution for stating in contact with those who are not near to someone is using social networking websites. Social networking websites are useful to us because at first we are able to talk with those people who are very distant from us. We can chat or even see their videos using those social networking websites. The best thing is that the usage of most social networking websites is free so we dont need to pay a penny while sharing our photographs and video with our family and friends. Most people who have lost contact with their childhood and school friends make a very good use of such social networking websites because most of their old friends can be found on those social networking websites and then all of them can get back together. Now one of the most popular social networking website is facebook which has taken the world by storm. Many such social networking websites are now also available to people on their portable hand devices also like their mobile phones. Advancement in technology has been very helpful to all and especially those who use social networking websites.

A social networking site is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users. In the past five years, such sites have rocketed from a role activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of internet users. More than half (55%) of all online youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet Life Project. The survey also finds that older teens, particularly girls, are more likely to use these sites. For girls, social networking sites are primarily places to reinforce pre-existing friendships; for boys, the networks also provide opportunities for flirting and making new friends. With the evolution of the internet, the life of the youths in the towns changed from just a mere worker from a social person, an artificial social youth, sometimes and a natural social person. Internet changed many things, I am sure I need not speak much about it. But a special innovation which it brought about was the social networking. Basically social networking means a way in which one can keep himself connected to his near and dear ones in some way or the other. In the language of internet, it is the same thing, but it is a similar thing conducted in a different way. Here, it is entirely a different thing. The natural social networking involves media like letter, mails, telegrams, phone calls, but today it includes media like SMSs, e-mails, scraps and what not, there are so many terms. I wanted to take this topic into consideration and after a long time, finally I got into a mood to discuss my thoughts with you all. So, I would discuss about the social networking related to internet

in the upcoming words.

The Windward Side of It

Social Networking, today, has made the life of the Richie riches easier. Those who have nice smart phones in their hands, can easily surf themselves right away. However, the medium classes can also enjoy this. People can today keep themselves connected to their near and dear ones all the times. They can easily correspond with them anytime they want to do. With offline messages like scraps and offline chat messages they can easily leave a message to their near and dear ones, asking about their welfare or having an informal chat of any type, anytime. Social networking has enabled us today to climb the mountains of connectivity so easily and you know the best part of it? Most of the online services like chatting, emailing etc are totally free, so even the middle and the low classes can enjoy the services. It is therefore a big merit of this feature that cutting on the expenditure of ISD call rates, we can easily connect to the people of our beats easily, in case they are living in some other country. With the internet social networking, one can easily present him/her before everyone. What does one need to do? Simply take a stand, spend some 3000-4000 bucks, create your own website, design it, put contents and finally you are done. In short, it therefore means that one can stay connected even while sleeping, and today to my surprise, marriages are being conducted with the help of the so called matrimony websites which help us find the guys of our taste and finally we can select the bridegroom or the bride, chat to him/her, have a meet with him/her and finally, the "Just Married" signboard will be on the back of the car. Thus, today, to my surprise, internet social networking is helping people get married even. What not we can do? We can show our videos and songs. These were all the merits of social networking, these were simply the pros, not let's have a look towards the cones. The Leeward Side of It Today so many people, especially the old aged people say that the new generation has become so lazy because of social networking feature. Many even say that these so called social networking media are simply making the people of the present generation unsocial by doing all these. It is notable that due to this feature of the internet, we are making friends with so many people whom we never see in our lives but we spend hours chatting with them without knowing who they actually are. Children of teenage who need to go to the fields and play with their real friends are busy with unidentified people on the net chatting with them, emailing with them, talking about their welfare and having a behavior in such a way that they are even more to them than their real friends. Yeah of course, some may come to a realistic end, but most of them really never meet. Children are becoming lazy talking to these people, maintaining their so called social status and just filling their life with dramatized follow ups. What are they doing? Students go to cyber cafes, spend hundreds of rupees and what they do? They simply keep on writing scraps to their so called distant friends. It really deviates the young minds from their actual courses, hitting at their health, hitting at their actual socialism. There are many leeward aspects, but what I want to question is that is this social networking grasping feature of the internet so social at all. Does it have more merits or more demerits?

Anyways, my suggestion to the teenagers especially would be have a consideration on the so called social networked nature of theirs'. From behind their bedroom doors, more than 1 out of every 10 teenagers has posted a nude or seminude picture of themselves or others online - a "digital tattoo" that could haunt them for the rest of their lives, according to a poll being released today. Aside from the nudity, the survey also found that at least a quarter of the young people polled had posted something they later regretted, made fun of others or created a false identity online. While teens are spending more and more time on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace - with 22 percent saying they check their sites more than 10 times a day - they don't seem to be aware of the long-term personal havoc they could create with a click of a button. And their parents generally have little idea about what their children are up to, "There are enormous consequences from inappropriate behavior online." parents to gauge how much time young people are spending on social-networking sites, what they do when they're on them - and whether their parents know. Teenagers don't always self-censor online; they may bully classmates, for example, or post risqu photos of themselves or their peers. "If you're not in the same place as the person, it just feels less personal; it's easier to do mean things. Yet there can be enormous consequences.

Its Pros and Cons Advantages

Refined Search: only social networking sites offer internet users with a search
directory that you can use to locate particular individuals or groups. You can search by categories like location, industry, interests and other unique preferences. This way, you do not waste your time and resources establishing connection with people you and your business have nothing in common with.

Affordable visibility: since most of these social networking sites are free, you
should maximize them. Make sure that the profile you created will be interesting for the readers. Also, you should make it more personalized by adding interesting articles, images, videos and even reviews of your products.

Receptive Members: the concept of social networking sites lies on the premise
that members have at least one thing in common. Because of this, it is not surprising that you will receive messages from people you do not really know or likewise, you could be interested in establishing contact with some of the members who might interest you.

Built-in Group: Starting a discussion is not difficult with social networking sites
compared to growing one on your site. With the millions of visitors and members, you will have no problem with attracting participants. Discussion groups are also the best place to do some soft selling. You can accomplish this by lending your expertise on particular subjects.

Expand Network Easily: the key to establishing a successful online business is

being visible to other people outside your network. The fact that you are connected to these people because of an existing connection with one of your contacts, make you more trustworthy. Compared to approaching someone on the street, social networking sites would provide you with considerable marketing advantage.

Social networking is a recent invention that has the Internet still at the edge of its seat due to its popularity with people. This is mostly because it really is for the people. Bringing every kind of social group together in one place and letting them interact is really a big thing indeed. Everything about it lies on the advantages and disadvantages of social networking, and what it can do for you. Here are the advantages that can be more than enough for you to want to join in.

Low Costs
Definitely, it's cheaper to use online social networking for both personal and business use because most of it is usually free. While personal use is rather simple for anyone, the business functions are underestimated by many. In a social networking site, you can scout out potential customers and target markets with just a few clicks and keystrokes, adding a boost to your usual advertisements and promotional strategies. It lets you learn about their likes and dislikes, which is tremendous. If you want to fine tune your business, then this is the way to go, whether on a budget or not.

Builds Credibility
You definitely can gain the customers' confidence if you can connect to them on both a personal and professional level. Despite having to do a bit of work, it definitely pays off as you can be tapped for an offer if someone catches wind of your products or services. As long as you don't pursue them too aggressively, you will do well here.

Connections
You are friends with people who have other friends, and so on. There is potential in such a common situation. By using a social networking site, you can do what you can and get connected with these people to form a web of connections that can give you leverage if you play your cards right. As long as you give as well as you receive, then they will most likely stick with you. These connections are definitely valuable in the long run. That definitely sounds enticing. However, what about the disadvantages though?

Disadvantages

Lack of Anonymity
You are putting out information about your name, location, age, gender, and many other types of information that you may not want to let others know. Most people would say be careful, but no one can be certain at any given time. As long as people can know who you exactly are, then some can find ways to do you in.

Scams and Harassment

There is a potential for failure of security in both personal and business context. While many sites apply certain measures to keep any of these cases of harassment, cyber-stalking, online scams, and identity theft to an absolute minimum, you still may never know.

Time Consuming
If this is not your kind of thing that it would just be a waste of time for you. The key to social networking is that it is supposed to be fun, whether you are just doing it for kicks or clicking around for business purposes. That should be reasonable enough for anyone, but there are those people who don't see the point. For them, it can be a disadvantage. Now there is something to really think about. Nothing is without a blemish, but those of this type of networking shouldn't really be that much of a concern regarding your safety. As long as you go along without making big mistakes, then it is all good. You can take advantage of the Internet phenomenon that continues up to this day.

LIMITATIONS

1. The sample size that we have taken is 100 which we are assuming that it is homogeneous and enough to carry out the research. 2. Most of the sample population consists of students and hence our research mainly focuses on students using social networking sites. 3. The analysis done is mainly judgmental in nature. 4. The concept of social networking sites is not very old in India thus not much of research has been done in regards to its effects. 5. The expertise of the questionnaire design is limited. 6. The underlying assumption is that the survey conducted in limited area represents the general psyche of the users of the social networking site.

CONCLUSION
A social networking web site is an online community in which people can connect to others with similar interests. Since their start in 1995 with Classmates.com, social networking web sites have grown enormously to include such huge sites today as hi5.com, Facebook.com, and orkut.com. Through these sites businesses can use social networking web sites to connect to potential employees, market new products, and get feedback on their current products as well as new ideas for future products. Although there are many valuable assets to social networking web sites, there are also major issues that the sites must address such as the protection of private information, the protection of children, and the protection of copyrighted material. Although they have issues, social networking web sites are still one of the best inventions of the modern era because they connect so many people. The work described above contributes to an on-going dialogue about the importance of social network sites, both for practitioners and researchers. Vast, uncharted waters still remain to be explored. Methodologically, SNS researchers' ability to make causal claims is limited by a lack of experimental or longitudinal studies. Although the situation is rapidly changing, scholars still have a limited understanding of who is and who is not using these sites, why, and for what purposes. Such questions will require large-scale quantitative and qualitative research. We hope that our findings and the work described here will help build a foundation for future investigations of these and other important issues surrounding social network sites.

SUGGESTIONS
Some ideas for future research for social networking websites would be personal contact offices to register on these sites to determine the legitimacy of the person who is trying to register. Although this would most likely end up a great hassle, it would provide the best security out there for people who are trying to have safe fun and connect with people that share similar interests and ideas. Another future tool social networking websites could use would be a licensing agreement with certain parties to prevent copyright infringement from happening on the Internet.