Social networking has been the new way to make friends, build your personal, professional network, based on the area of interest or just for fun. With more and more people being close to the world wide web, orkutting, flickering, blogging etc are the words that are heard in our friends and sorrounding people. One can be sure that a person who uses web will be registered at least with one social networking website. A few people make it more professional to build their work related network like linkedin.

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.The network keeps growing based on the user provided introduction facilities or through direct contact which will be approved by the person being contacted.

While it could be said that email and websites have most of the essential elements of social network services, the idea of proprietary encapsulated services has gained popular uptake recently. Some of the social networking services provide an option to create your own groups with specific area of interest, thus allowing like minded people to discuss and establish a perfect and more mature communication channel.

Since every technology has its pros and cons, social networking services are becoming necessary evils. With little option to the privacy that can be established, there is always a concern on the information that is shared across shared network as mostly all the members of the network will be able to see the posted content. Off late, with serious concerns being raised in this area the social network service providers have started providing restricted access like only friends can view the messages, option to control who can see if you are online etc are being promoted.

Other serious problem is with the risk of child abuse through the social networks. Citizens and governments have been concerned by a misuse by child and teenagers of social network 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. However parents need to be more cautious in these situations as most of the child locking internet applications will only prevent the children from accessing adult or non-relavant content. However, there are very few software which keeps a close watch on the online predators who will targetting the children.

However, like any other technology, if used with caution and with the right spirit, social networking is a boon to the online society. With the recession creaping over the horizon, social networking will be of much help with jobs and opportunities of sharing the information with the like minded people becomes more and more easier.

 Every internet software is built internally with a skeletal frame work. Similarly the social network services are based on the social networking engines like

1. PeopleAggregator
2. ELGG
3. Mugshot
4. Drupal
5. Community
6. Server
7. iScripts Socialware
8. Joomla!
9. PHPizabi
10. ODS

The following link from the wikipedia provides a detailed comparison of the features provided by each of these technolgoies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_social_networking_software

The social networking services that one likes purely will depend on her or his area of interest. Some may look specifically for Business specific requirements, where network like Linkedin etc will help.Off late, Online dating community sites are catching up the speed. With its wide spread area, social networking are becoming particularly popular in the medical field. With pharmacy industry spending millions of dollars in the area of marketing, social network services are appearing to be a boon to them.

A new trend is emerging with social networks created to help its members with various physical and mental ailments. For people suffering from life altering diseases, PatientsLikeMe offers its members the chance to connect with others dealing with similar issues and research patient data related to their condition. For alcoholics and addicts, SoberCircle gives people in recovery the ability to communicate with one another and strengthen their recovery through the encouragement of others who can relate to their situation. Daily strength is also a website that offers support groups for a wide array of topics and conditions, including the support topics offered by PatientsLikeMe and SoberCircle. SparkPeople offers community and social networking tools for peer support during weight loss.

The analysis by Alexa, the global page ranking service has shown that there is a drastic increase in the trend of people visiting the social networking sites. In more eastern countries, matrimony sites are becoming a new trend for matching the brides and grooms. Although these come as a paid service, web based approach has really helped millions of people as claimed by the CEOs of these companies. Even the adult content social websites are catching up as well. These websites pay for the service provided by people for being members at times. Although they lure one into free memberships by displaying attractive photos, any further service comes at a cost.

The top 20 websites as per Alexa have the following social networking sites listed under them:

Facebook
Youtube
Myspace
twitter
flickr.

Facebook is still a favourite based on the top 100 most visited websites in the United States.

http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US