Check Out Social Networking Sites

Myspace - Myspace allows you to post up pictures, photo albums, and videos just like Facebook and Friendster. Also it enables you to comment on your friend's profile, pictures, and videos. You can also make your profile private to block indiviuals or strangers from viewing it. Myspace gives a lot of control to user. Ways it differentiates itself is by allowing you to mess around with your profile's image. You can change font colors and background image. Also Myspace lets the user add a song to their page which can play when people visit their page. One thing which you dont see with other social networking sites is how Myspace attracts a lot of musicians to their website. The reason for this is because you're able to create is different kind of profile where you can upload a playlist and have others listen to it while watching how many times it gets played. This attracts people who want to get their music heard and possibly reviewed by others. I remember this is how Tila Tequila became big in her music, but she also attracted many people with her modeling pictures. Also another unique thing about Myspace is how it friends you with Tom when you first create an account. Tom is the founder of Myspace. Myspace has this feature called top 8 where you can show everyone who are your top 8 friends with their profile picture and a link to their profile.

Facebook - Facebook is more of a clean look. It's common that many people went from Myspace to Facebook when they graduate from high school. This may sound funny but I believe it to be true because it gives people the sense that they're growing up to a more professional looking website. I personally switched because most of my friends were using Facebook as their social networking site and also because my Myspace account was getting hacked into. Ever since I've been on Facebook, my accounts has not been hacked into yet. A famous feature on Facebook is their status update. Many people like to update their status on what they're doing at a specific time or what's on their mind. Its common that their status' also receive comments. Another thing about Facebook is how many people use it to invite people to events and join groups with their interests. Unique features on Facebook are how they have games where friends compete for high scores and also another feature where you can give your friends e-gifts and poke each other, have pillow fights, etc. Something on Facebook that people either love or hate is live news feed where you're able to see what's being said amongst your friends but this also means your comments are viewable to others as well. One bad thing about Facebook is how they limit your friend list to 5000. I don't understand the point of this.


Friendster - This is actually very similar to Facebook but with just a different format. Friendster allows you to block users just as Myspace and Facebook. Similar to Facebook, it allows uploads of photo and videos, has a status update and activity stream, has games and e-gifts too. Some unique characteristics of Friendster is this tab called Classifieds where I notice people post items they're giving away. There are almost all categories you can think of and you can also be very specific in your search. For example I was looking at cars and you can choose posts with pictures only, price range, the type, the make, the year, the condition, the location, or seller type. I thought this was amazing and maybe will be something other social networking sites will copy.

Twitter - Twitter is quite unique. I notice Twitter is much more simple than most social networking sites and it's formatted in the way blogs are. So between all the social networking site above, Twitter is most closely related to a blog. What Twitter is mainly about is the status updates. For those who enjoy sharing with the world what's on their mind or what they're doing, Twitter is the site to use. What makes Twitter unique is how you're able to follow friends, people you admire, and interest groups. With this following feature, you're able to get the latest feed on those people you're mostly interested in. Twitter acknowledges that not everyone wants to update the world on what their status is. According to Claire Cain Miller of New York Times Twitter can also be used for just following "friends, bloggers, and thought leaders" of your interest. Claire Miller also said that Twitter has this feature where you can create lists of those you follow. For example, if you don't want to read all the new feeds from all the people you're following, you can simply create a list of celebrities, political leaders, sports teams, etc. Just like Facebook and Friendster, you're able to update your status through your cellphone. But Twitter is unique in the sense that users feel closer to people they follow by reading their statuses.

Cite
Miller, Claire Cain, "Getting the Most Out of Twitter", New York Times, Technology, March 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/technology/04basics.html