The original idea of creating this social networking website came from FriendSter. They saw the potential of social website and started their own social media known as “MySpace”. The features of this social networking website are mostly borrowed from FriendSter and  was launched in August 2003.The initial members of MySpace are eUniverse employees.

MySpace was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News corp in July 2005 and it gains 200,000 new users every day. MySpace has over 100 million users worldwide using it.

Development

MySpace borrowed features from FriendSter which is a top social networking website then. The impact created by this website as such that FriendSter users turned towards this. FriendSter only allowed its users to enter their person details and upload photos, whereas MySpace allowed to modify the whole profile to every bit.

Current revenue of this website is $20 million and growing fast. The main source of revenue is through advertisements. This website also launched MySpace Records where various concerts are hosted on the site.

The website is also launching regional versions, the China version of it is launched, and also launched similar versions in many countries. Through 2007 and 2008, MySpace has redesigned many of its features. The important enhancements made are user home page. With this change members can micro blog with status updates and add applications.

On August 2008, Google came into contract to provide search facility and also advertising on this website.

Current usage

This website offers many services to its users. After a user registers with it, he can make his profile attractive. The user profile can be customized to fit his interest and hobby.

Users can also share his media such as photos and videos to other users and offers inbuilt photo editing to crop and adjust contrast of images uploaded.

Users can also post web logs with the Blog feature. Users are given full way to customize their profile page with the use of HTML while other social websites only offers customization through themes.

MySpace launched separate profile for musicians in “MySpace Music”. Here the users can upload their whole discographies consisting of MP3 songs and users can also create play lists.

Users with common interest or hobby can join communities where they can learn and share with people with common interests. The users can also upload media on communities.

With the API(Application Programming Interface) released by this website, users or developers can create applications that can be embedded into MySpace.

Future development

From this website, in future we can expect the following features:

• Better security: The  user profile can be customized with HTML, so the profiles are hackable by others. The profile security is expected to combat this in future.
• Mobile support: Support for using this web service can be more supported.
• In the future we can expect MySpace to turn into a gaming platform.
• This website also announced its own email service.

User benefits:

As MySpace is one of the most popular social networking websites,  members of it can connect to friends anywhere in the world. Users can also share media(photos, videos) with other members.

Web log feature is available through which users can maintain their own blogs. Companies can register with this to display advertisements on this website. These ads can be customized to target users based on different parameters.

Similar to other social websites, this website can be used to share information and knowledge among its users. Users can form communities or groups based on common interest or hobby. In These groups, users can post questions and also provide answers to other users.

An instant messenger is provided through users can chat with their friends even though they did not log in.

Company benefits:

The main benefit of MySpace to its company is the amount of revenue generated  and displays ads from companies registered with it. As this social networking website is gaining popularity the amount of revenue generated through is also expected to rise.

Content by Mark Anderson,  Websites4results

The present CEO of LinkedIn was Jeff Weiner who previously worked as Yahoo executive.                     This business networking website was founded by Reid Hoffman and he is the former CEO of it. While other social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace target teenagers, this focuses on professionals networking.

The website was officially launched on May, 2003 when five of its founders invited 350 of their contacts to join. After a month, the members reached 4,500 and started growing fast. LinkedIn had it’s headquarter based in Mountain View CA, USA. Sequoia Capital, Greylock partners and others purchased 5% stack in this website for $53 million.

LinkedIn development:

LinkedIn launched first premium membership feature called as “LinkedIn Jobs” which helps its members to find employment.

The mobile version of this was launched on February, 2008 which allows user to access it through mobile phone.  This website also launched ‘LinkedIn DirectAds’ to display advertisements. LinkedIn enabled other online services to be embedded through applications platform on October, 2008.

Examples of applications that can be displayed on your profile are Amazon Reading List-displays books they are reading. By the end of 2007, the members of this website reached 15 million.

Current usage:

LinkedIn is used for business networking and can help you increase your business connections. At present, this website has more than 170 industries listed. The people in your list (like friends list) are called ‘connections’.

User can invite anyone even if he is not a member to join his contact list. You can also get answers to your question through “LinkedIn Answers”.

You can use profile to search for job openings or references from users in your connections. Users can join groups on LinkedIn Groups. These groups can include communities such as alumni, specific industry. Any user can create groups on a specific industry or subject.

Users can embed applications such as Amazon Reading List, display latest blog entries from WordPress and TypePad on your profile. Developers can integrate services of this website in their applications using the OpenSocial API by any developer.

Future developments:

The LinkedIn may change in the future to include more features to users and also to use the technology. As this website is used for business networking, it may include better way for its users to communicate.

The following features are expected from LinkedIn in future:

1. This may turn into a full featured job portal where companies post job openings and employees post their resume. It may work similar to other job portals out there.
2. Availability in multilingual: The website may be available in different languages for different regions.
3. Social connections: LinkedIn may future develop the social nature of the connections. That is a user can know his friend’s status at present similar to other social networking websites.
4. Linked may become a common place where you can search for people as many people use to display their business profile.
5. Your profile may serve as your identity. In future companies may hire people based on their profile rather than a traditional resume.

User benefits:

LinkedIn can be used to manage your business contacts and can be used to boost your professional career.

The following are the benefits from LinkedIn:

1. LinkedIn is a free service so anyone can use it to their benefit.
2. Can be used to show your professional experience, qualifications and your education details.
3. Can be used to gain professional contact which you can use to gain employment opportunities.
4. You can join groups which have people from similar industry or profession at one place.
5. You can post questions regarding your career which can be answered by experts from relating fields.
6. Using “LinkedIn Events”, you can post about events that take place.
7. Companies using this website can use to promote their service or product by LinkedIn DirectAds.

Technical explanation:

Users can create a profile very easily. Registering at this website simply needs an email id. During the registration you need to provide details: the first name, last name your email id and desired password.

After you registration is complete, you need to setup your profile. Your profile should reflect your professional experience such as your work experience and education qualification.

You can search for people, jobs, and companies through the search feature from your profile page. The people from company associated with this website will be your colleagues you can invite them to be in your connection.

You can ask question and answer question posted by other user by clicking on Answer link. LinkedIn groups can be browsed and searched by going to Groups-> Groups Directory on your profile page. A new group can also be created by going to Groups->Create a Group. Applications can be added to your profile by clicking on Applications link. Clicking on Applications link takes you to applications list page.

Worldwide usage:

LinkedIn members reached 43 million. The average age of its user is 41 years. Users with over 45 years form 31 percent of profiles. Users of this website have about 80% of its users reside outside of US. LinkedIn is now used in about 200 countries.

Content by Mark Anderson,  Websites4results

The founders of WAYN are Pete Ward, Jerome Touze and Mike Lines. WAYN has financial support from Steve Pankhurst the founder of Friends Reunited.

WAYN has members from 80 countries and its growth was mainly through word of mouth. Burst into success from 45,000 users in March 2005 to around 15 million members from 220 countries at present.

Development:

WAYN development was started in 2002 and released to public on March 2003. According to WAYN it has members from 251 countries and has 15 million members.

WAYN is the world’s fastest travel and life style social networking website and got initial funding from Steven Pankhurst.

WAYN raised $11 million from Brent Hoberman (co-founder of UK travel budget site Lastminute.com), Esprit Capital Partners, Adrian Critchlow and Andy Philip, David Soski and Hugo Burge and Constant Tedder.

WAYN spread in 250 countries has become a truly global brand today from a mere 45,000 members in 2005 and was re launched in 2006 adding more features and these helped to increase in its popularity.

Current usage:

WAYN is a travel community website. Here members can keep track of their friends and make new friends based on where you are now, where you have been and where you are going.

Using this website, you can discover new friends and keep your family and friends well informed about where are you and your activities.

Used by people to get more information about places they are to visit. WAYN contains photos, videos of places uploaded by other users which are categorized.

Due to its popularity in travel and life style social networking websites, this website is often called as “The MySpace of Travel”.

Future developments:

WAYN is the most famous travel and life style social networking website. The features may be changed in the future are:

1. Navigational interface: The user interface of WAYN may be more streamlined in the future for better navigation of sections.
2. Better privacy and security: The privacy and security of profile need to be more secure.

User benefits:

WAYN is a travel community website and offers the following benefits to its users:

1. Help to plan trips: WAYN contains information on places that can help the users to get information about places.
2. Users can share their travel experience with others.
3. Gives information about restaurants, hotel, events and transportation details about a place.
4. Can be used to inform your family, friends where you are and your activities.
5. Can be used to meet old friends and also make new friends.

Technical explanation:

You need to register at wayn.com to use full features of it. Registration needs your full name, email address, password and your location.

After you register, you need to confirm your email address by clicking on the confirmation email sent to you. Clicking on the confirmation link, you are taken to your profile page. From your profile, you can access all of features.

The profile displays your friends list, members near your location; you can select your theme. You can add trip details by clicking on “Add your next trip” which takes you to My Trips page. In My Trips page, you can enter trip name, description about the trip and destination start date and end date.

You can use the “Travel Guide” for searching hotels, flights, restaurants for your travel trip.

Using the People section you can view your friends, search for friends. Photos can be added by visiting “Photos” link on your profile. Photos can be added from clicking Add Photos from “All Photos” page.

Videos can be searched, browsed and uploaded by going to “Videos” section from your profile.

You can use web log feature by visiting “Blogs” section from your profile. In the page that appears, you can create a blog entry, view friend’s blog and browse all blogs.

Worldwide usage:

WAYN claims that it has members from 250 countries around the world. It says it has around 15 million members. According to alexa.com, wayn.com has 33% of its users from India, 10% from USA, 4% from UK.

Content by Mark Anderson,  Websites4results

]]> http://websites4results.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/wayn-your-travel-friend/feed/ 0 web4results http://websites4results.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/friendster/ http://websites4results.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/friendster/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:46:40 +0000 Mark Anderson http://websites4results.wordpress.com/?p=34 ]]> Friendster is a social networking website which allows its users to contact with others, share content such as photos, videos.

The name Friendster comes from combination of “Friend” and “Napster”.The aim of this website is to allow people to communicate from anywhere.

Friendster became mostly famous in Asia and 90 % of its registered users are from here.

Friendster was founded by Jonathan Abrams who is a computer programmer in 2002 and had its headquarters based in Sydney, Australia.

This website went live on March, 2003 and in first three months more than 3 million users have registered.

The company was funded financially by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and IDG Ventures.

The regional languages in which this website is available are: Indonesian, Chienese, Malay, Japanese, Korean. Frienster was one of first social networking platform and stood on top until 2004, when MySpace took on the place.

Development:

The Friendster website went live on March, 2003.In the first 3 months of its launch, Friendster received huge success as more than 3 million users have registered with it.

Friendster receives funding from private sources.It was offered a buyout from Google for $30 million in 2003.Friendster declined this offer.

Friendster was funded by Kleiner Perkins & Caufield and Benchmark Capital in 2003 October for a figure of $53 million.In the year 2007, Friendster launched Friendster Development Program and also launched the website in 9 regional languages.With the use of Development program of Friendster, users or developers can build widgets( tiny applications which can be placed on webpage).

By the year 2008, this website became the 7 th most visited website in the world and top social networking website in Asia. Friendster launched text alerts for users from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines on June, 2008.

In August, 2008 Richard Kimbler was hired as CEO, who previously was regional managing director of South Asia for Google.

Current usage:

Friendster is the top social networking website in Asia and ranked 4^th worldwide.It has over 90 million registered users and over 61 million unique visitors visit each month and receives over 19 billion page views per month and is ranked in top 100 websites in the world.

The countries which are using Friendster widely are Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia ,South Korea, US, Singapore, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and India ( according to Alexa).

Friendster was widely spread in Asian countries because it is available in regional languages. This social networking website is also used as an internet marketing place to promote products or services or website.Through this website, companies can reach customers who are targeted based on geographical location or on age group.

Future development:

Friendster at present has tough time in the social networking industry.Friendster lost its top position to MySpace and Facebook. Features like mobile text messaging can make this website to reach new markets and users.

Friendster also launched its API to developers, so they can create applications like games and other interactive content.

• Friendster targets mostly users in age group above 16.
• Fan profiles: One of Friendster future plan is to set up local celebrity fan profiles.This can increase the number of users of Friendster.
• Collaborate with local companies: This social website collaborates with local companies to produce content that can attract more people.The content depends on the region of the users.
• Better User Interface: Most user are away from this website because of its clutered interface.An easy to understand and use interface is needed from Friendster in future.

User benefits:

Much like all other social networking website, this website offers benefits such as reconnecting with your old friends and sharing media content such as photos, videos.

• Users can make new relations and also find their old school or college friends through it.
• Members can form into communities or groups in which they can join and discuss about a topic or of an interest.
• Provides blog feature to its users.Using blogs users can express their fellings and thoughts.
• Provides mobile text alerts, so its users can receive messages even if they are not logged on website.

Technical explanation:

Friendster works as follows :

• To access the this website, you have to register using your email and desired username and password.
• After registering and confirming your account, you are asked to update your profile.In the profile you can provide information such as your interests, hobbies and what you do.
• The profile is your home page, from here you can search for friends and view what your friends are. From your profile you can post comments or messages to your friends.
• Photos and videos can also be posted from your profile page.
• Applications can be placed on your profile so that any other user visiting your profile can use these applications.

Current trends:

At current times, Friendster lost its place to new comers such as MySpace and Facebook, although it is still the top social networking website in Asia region.

Friendster is currently older age group between 18+ and is keeping its effort to regain its top place in social networking websites and it reveals that the recent changes have gained 40% more site visitors in a month.

Usage worldwide:

Friendster has its user base mainly concentrated in Asian countries.Friendster has over 90 million registered users and over 61 million unique visitors a month globally. The website receives approximately 19 billion page views per month, and is in the top 100 global website based on web traffic.

Over 90% of this website’s traffic comes from Asia. In Asia, it has more monthly unique visitors than any other social network.The top 10 countries accessing Friendster, according to Alexa, as of May 7, 2009 are the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, the United States, Singapore, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and India.

The Hi5 is a social networking website started in 2003. Hi5 is founded by Ramu Yalamanchi and he is the current CEO of Hi5.

Hi5 has its headquarter in San Francisco, United States, it has gained popularity especially in Latin America. The website is available currently in 15 languages. It also has 35 million unique website visits every month according to Alexa.

This website is number 1 or 2 most trafficked website in dozen countries. The Hi5 website is growing faster month by month and showing an increase of 15% per month.

Development:

The Hi5 has become a widely used social networking website and offers profile customization to the registered users. Hi5 was chosen as the third most popular social networking website by comScore according to monthly page views and as of January 2009, this website claims it has over 60 million members.

Current usage:

Since its launch in 2003, Hi5 is more popular in the Latin America and currently enables its users to join chat rooms, groups and also they can customize their profiles with variety of themes and backgrounds.

While this is among top 10 websites in the world, it is not in top 50 websites in the US and was a great social networking website for those who live in Central America.

The website is named Hi5 as you can give your friends a High-Five. The high-five is much similar to rating, you can give as warrior fives, crush fives, swank fives and many more.

Future developments:

There are number of features we can expect from Hi5 in future. The most awaited features or developments are:

• Better User Interface: The interface of this website can be improved in the future.
• Privacy options and security: The present privacy and security options needs to be improved in the future.

Benefits to users:

As all social networking websites, Hi5 allows its users to develop friendship with others. Hi5 also allows to discover your old friends through search.

If you don’t want to show your profile to anonymous users,privacy options can be set to make your profile as private. Private profiles can only be viewed by your friends.

You can store your photos using photo albums. Through this you can share your photos to your friends. Privacy options can also be set for your photo albums.

Technical explanation:

Registration is required in order to use this website. After you login you can fill basic information about you. This information appears on your profile. The “Friend Finder” tool through which you can filter according to gender, status (married or single), country and age.

You can add other members as your friend by clicking on Add as Friend link in that user profile. This sends a message to that user to confirm you as his friend.

Hi5 allows to invite or make friends from your Yahoo mail, Gmail and AOL. Hi5 searches for friends from your email contacts whether they are on the network.

Photos can be uploaded by clicking on Photos link. You can categorize your photos into albums. Privacy options can be applied to photo albums so that only your friends can view them.

You can send a message to other user or your friend using scrapbook.

Worldwide usage:

Hi5 based in US has gained popularity in Latin American countries. The full-scale localization strategy applied by this website has helped the site to gain more members and presently the user interface is offered in 20 regional languages worldwide.

This social networking website offers its users localized experience to its members helping them to connect based on language or culture.

Over 50 million unique users every month, this is the number one social networking website in 25 countries across the world.

Content by Mark Anderson, Websites4results

Meetup is social networking website that helps its users to arrange meetings locally. The meetings that are arranged are ranged from topics such as movies, health, pets, politics and other interests.

Meetup.com was founded by Scott Heiferman, Matt Mekker, and Peter Kamali on June, 2002. Inspiration came from the book “Bowling Alone”- which explains the decline in neighborhood relations in US.

During 2002 to 2003, this website was one of worlds fastest growing social networking website. Mainly politicians has used it to organize meetings and has been heavily used by political campaigns in US and gained popularity during 2004 and most users registering at it signed for Dean in 2004, Clark in 2004 and Kerry in 2004.

This website announced that it would collect charges from local Organizers from August, 2005. The official statistics from Meetup.com website( http://www.meetup.com/about) reveals that it has 5.7 million members, 179,000 monthly meetups and 11,507 cities.

Meetup development:

Interests and groups on this website has been increasing from its start and the real push for it came during the 2003 political campaign when Democratic Presidential nomination started to use to conduct their grass root movement.

Meetup.com revenue came from monthly subscriptions paid by local organizers. From August, 2005 this website announced to collect charges from local organizers.

During March, 2005 members reached 1,595,165 members registered with it (according to official website). It also has 194,472 local groups covering 5,454 different topics.

Meetup removed local groups without paying organizers and also groups which has less than 5 or less members. It reported having 1,643,652 members, 5,484 topics and 99,731 local groups during July, 2005.

The Meetup official website reveals that it has 5.7 million members, 8,340 different topics and 58,936 groups as on September, 2009.

Current usage:

Meetup is currently used to organize meetings with people locally. It is a form of real social networking where people meet. This website has different groups which grown to more than 2000 in number and thus makes easy to organize a local group or join one of existing group to meet face to face.

Members can start their own group and people from that area will join and meet them. Members need to enter their US zip code and for other countries, the city they live and the topic they are interested.

Members can choose from existing topics and it has presently 8,340 listed. You need to join a group and there are around 66,725 as on September, 2009. You can browse groups by a topic you interest and also search.

The groups are organized by an Organizer or Assistant Organizer and are called “Meetup Events” or “Meetups”. When a Event has been scheduled, the members of the group has the right to tell whether they attend or not.

The group members respond by selecting “Yes”, “No” or “Maybe”. Meetup does not charge for signing up or attending a Meetup or joining a group. It charges the organizer of the group.

User benefits:

The Meetup website differs from other social networking websites as it allows its users to meet face to face. The user can form into groups locally and meet regularly.

The following are some of the benefits of using Meetup.com :

1. Find other people locally who have similar interests as you.
2. You can get involved in local meetups (meetings organized) organized in your area.
3. By attending the meetups you can learn, teach and share knowledge.
4. Through meetups you can get new friends in your locality.
5. You can be proud to be part of community that is local or international.
6. Companies can promote their product/service by organizing meetups locally.
7. You can organize different campaigns in your locality this is proven by political campaigns successfully organized.

Technical explanation:

To join and participate in Meetup.com website, you need to register. Registering at this website requires you to provide the following: your real name,password, email id, country and city.

After you register search for topic or interest near a place you like to attend. If there exists no group on your interest near your place you can start your own.

The member who owns/start a group is called “Meetup Organizer” and charges for the organizer of a group as in following plans:

1. $12 per month for a period of 6 months.
2. $15 per month for a period of 3 months.
3. $19 per month.

You can join this website for free and you can also join group without any fees. Some group organizers may charge its members for attending an event. These costs may involve room rentals, prizes cost, and others.

The Organizer plans when and where to schedule a meeting. The members of that group may RSVP to its organizer by telling whether they attend that meeting or not by “Yes” or “No” or “May Be”. The schedule of group appears in the Group’s calender.

Worldwide usage:

According to Alexa.com, meetup.com was used extensively in United States forming 78%, United Kingdom forms 4% of users and the rest from Canada, India and Australia.

Meetup official website (http://www.meetup.com/about) reveals that it has 5.7 million members and it organized 179,000 monthly meetups around 11,507 cities in the world.

Content by Mark Anderson, Websites4results

Last.fm is a music community website that acts as internet radio. Last.fm was founded in the year 2002. The present website is from the merge of Audioscrobbler and Last.fm in 2005.

Last.fm was acquired by CBS Interactive for $280 million on May, 2005. This social media website uses a music recommender system called Audioscrobbler to build profile by previously listened song. Members can create their own internet radio stations and playlists using music from many of audio tracks on this websites music library.

Last.fm won the Europix award for 2002 and in 2006 this website was awarded the Best Community website at BT Music Awards.

Last.fm generates revenue from online advertisements, user subscription fee and announced that it would charge users from March, 2009.

Development:

Last.fm made an update on July, 2006 released a new software application for playing radio streams. The friends system was updated to include two-way friendship.

Last.fm localized its website into the languages: German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and Chinese (Simplified).

CBS Interactive acquired this website on May, 2007 for $248 million. CBS Radio announced that Last.fm radio stream would be available from KCBS-HD2 in Los Angeles, KITS-HD3 in San Fransico, WWFS-HD2 in New York City and WXRT-HD3 in Chicago City.

Registration is free and to access the website, but to use its radio service a subscription fee of 3 pounds per month.

Current usage:

Last.fm acts as an internet radio and also with social networking feature. It works by learning from user’s music choice. It statistically learns which music genre the user prefers to listen. It needs an application to be installed in order to obtain statics for which music genre you often listen.

Last.fm works by music player plugin that works on user’s system. The plugin collects user frequently listened music genre from users music player.

This information is displayed on member profile. Members can download selected music tracks. At present more than 100,000 tracks are available for free download.

From January, 2007 this website introduced “Free The Music” model by which users can stream music tracks from the website up to 3 times. “Free The Music” is still in beta stage and available only in US, UK and Germany.

User benefits:

Members of this website can get the following benefits from using it:

1. Members can get music tracts of their interest.
2. With the scrobbler system that makes you discover new music tracks based on your interest.
3. Social networking feature is offered that connects you to other member having similar music taste.
4. Members can recommend a music tract to others.
5. As huge music collection is available, so you can get any music tract available.
6. You can download free music from this website.
7. Last.fm has lots of information on artists, albums, tracks and you can choose to listen music to your interest.

Technical explanation:

Registering at Last.fm you make the most of it. After registration is complete, Last.fm asks you to download software. This software works as plugin for most media players to collect information about music you listen.

Last.fm software installation asks you for user name and password. It then searches for supported media players installed on your system. You can select the media player you use to install the plugin.

The media player plugin collects song information when it reaches half or 120 seconds. It then submit the data to your profile.

In your profile, you can get information like weekly top artists, similar music tracts you may like and also other members with similar music interest.

worldwide usage:

Last.fm is a UK based social media website and claims that it has over 30 million active members from 200 countries.

Content by Mark Anderson, Websites4results

The Netlog is a social networking website and was specially targeted to the Europe demographic. This social networking website was developed by Lorenz Bogaert and Toon Coppens in July, 2003. As of beginning of 2009, it has 42 million users registered and available in 25 languages.

Netlog was initially called Facebox. As this website is famous in European countries, other country users feels excluded from it.

The features offered by this website include photo sharing, blogs, video and music sharing. Users can register for free, but they have to pay for adding content. The minimum age required to register at Netlog is 13 years.

Development:

Netlog at present concentrates on the European region. Users can customize their profile to suite their interests. On October, 2008 this website introduced applications, based on the Netlog Application Platform. Groups are introduced in place of clans.
Netlog also allows import your friends from utility called friend finder. The email services from which search are Windows Live ID, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail.

Netlog is Europe’s top social networking site and has been getting 60 million unique visitors per month. Revenue of this website is primarily through advertisements. Users of this website age group is mostly between 14 to 24 years.

Current usage:

Netlog is a Belgium based social networking website spread throughout Europe. It is available in 25 languages.
Similar to other social networking websites, this website is used to connect with your friends and share videos, photos with your friends. Members can also browse other members profiles, comment and rate photos, post blog. Member can join group/community where users with similar interest share their knowledge with others. Events enable users to view the upcoming events. Members can also conduct user polls that can be used to get user view on a topic.

Companies can advertise on this website to reach target audience about their product/service. Using localization, Netlog personalizes each user profile to be Geo-targeted. This feature enables the member to find members from his/her region.

Future developments:

Netlog focuses on gaming platform and it intends to develop a credit system.

Content by Mark Anderson, Websites4results

Flickr is a media sharing community website. Flickr allows its users to hoist photos and videos. As on June 2009, this website claims that it has more than 3.6 billion photos.

Flickr was developed by Ludicorp. It is a Vancouver based company that developed this initially as a massively multiplayer online game. During its initial release, this website allowed its users to chat online and share photos rather to store media on its back end. Later it dropped the chat feature and emerged as photo repository.

Yahoo acquired both Ludicorp and Flickr in 2005 and moved all servers from Canada to United States.
Flickr had its start accidental, when Caterina Fake when one of her British Columbia based online game company created a tool to share photos. It gained huge popularity in photo sharing websites and seen an increase of 448% in its users from December 2004 to December 2005.

Development:

The Flickr was acquired by Yahoo on March 2005. During the first week of June 2005, Yahoo moved all of the servers from Canada to US. Flickr is free to register and use. In December 2006, it increased the space from 20MB to 100MB.

On April, 2008 this website allowed to upload videos for paid subscribers. The uploaded videos are limited 90 seconds and 150 MB.

Flickr announced a set of API’s which allow developers to integrate photos into their own websites and applications and allows its users to tag their photos which enables quick search of their photos. A ‘tag’ is a keyword which relates to the photo.

You can also organize your photos into sets or groups of photos and also categorize a photo into more than one photo album.

Benefits to users:

Flickr allows to share photos to the world. You can upload, categorize and tag your photos.
You can use the Flickr API to easily integrate into other websites and applications. Flickr allows cool feature such as Geo tagging, the camera model with which you photographed.

Free space of 100 mega bytes per month to upload your photos. This website can be easily used by anyone who knows to browse internet can upload their photos. With its huge audience base, and you get noticed for your photos and promote your products or services.

Technical explanation:

To use this website to upload your photos, you need to register with it. If you are having Yahoo account, you can directly login to it.
After you register and login to your account, you can start uploading photos. Go to “upload photos” section from your home page. Click on “choose photos” link to select photos you want to upload.

You can set privacy level to your photos which allows only your friends to view yours. After the uploading completes, you can name photos, tag them and finally click save.

Without registering on Flickr you can search other users photos(which have public access) and also save them.

Adoption:

Flickr gained quick adoption from internet users. The quick success of this website lies in its easy to use interface and also free photo hosting.

You can also use this website as a photo repository which can be used to host photos and linked to your website.
Photos can also be uploaded to Flickr from desktop without visiting the website. You need to download a desktop client “Flickr Uploadr”.

Flickr partnered with Getty images to sell stock photos of some users. If you use iPhone (ver you can upload your photos directly to this website.

Worldwide usage:

Flickr is the second most used photo sharing community today and is presently facing competition with other photo sharing websites such as Picasaweb,Photobucket, and Webshots. Flickr is one of the first photo sharing website and so it is used world wide.

Content by Mark Anderson,Websites4results.

Windows Live Spaces history:

Windows Live Spaces was started in December, 2004. The Windows Live Spaces was initially called MSN Spaces. The aim of Live Spaces is to allow its users to share thoughts, photos and interests.

The number of users of Live Spaces reached 27 million as of August, 2007. Windows Live Spaces allows user to set access rights to access their ‘Live Space’ based on relationship between them (ex: Friends, Family).

Microsoft released a mobile web version of Live Spaces. It offers mostly blogging services and Microsoft marketed it to Hotmail and MSN Messenger.

Live Spaces offers pretty basic social networking features such as friends list and you can send a message and share photos. Live Spaces has more than 100 themes for you to choose for your personal page.

Windows Live Spaces development:

The social networking and blogging platform from Microsoft, initially called MSN Spaces. It later re branded as Windows Live Spaces became part of Windows Live services platform on August 1^st, 2006.

Windows Live Spaces improved the layout and design then MSN Spaces. MSN Spaces was designed for screen resolutions of 800×600 and Windows Live Spaces has updated it to display for 1024×768 resolution.

The browser incompatibility issues continue with Windows Live Spaces. It works best viewed with Internet Explorer. Users of Mozilla Firefox report that it has display problems on it.

Windows Live Spaces current usage:

At present Live Spaces offers its user to social network and blog. Live Spaces allows to integrate gadgets. Live Spaces is available in 25 languages.

Windows Live Spaces user can message their friends by clicking on “Send a Message” link. It offers a space of 25GB.

Live Spaces has 93 million profiles created since its release and 111 million users visit it every day. More than 18 million photos are uploaded every day and it has 4 billion photos.

Windows Live Spaces user can add the guest book module so that others can leave a comment for you. Microsoft added Windows Live Event feature similar to that of Facebook. Windows Live Event enables to see what your friends are doing at present.

Windows Live Spaces future benefits:

The future development of Live Spaces may include:

• Better browser compatibility: At present Live Spaces displays correctly on Internet Explorer. It has little support for Firefox, Opera.
• Re-designed home page: The home or profile page of Live Spaces could show for example latest Twitter messages from your friends and also display Flickr photo uploads.
• Groups: Windows Live Spaces may include Groups feature so that people with similar interest may join.
• Features from major social networking websites: Live Spaces may integrate features from sites such as Facebook, MySpace.

Windows Live Spaces benefits to user:

Windows Live Spaces allow a user to get a customizable web page to post blogs, photos, videos. To use Live Spaces you need not know programming, just follow the instructions to post blog,photos, videos.

Live Spaces allows to make your profile as public or private. Public profile can be accessed by anyone whereas private profile can only viewed by your friends.

Windows Live Spaces user can customize their pages with variety of themes or styles available. Live Spaces can be accessed via mobile from the website http://mobile.spaces.live.com.

Windows Live Spaces technical explanation:

Registration is required to use Windows Live Spaces. If you have a Live ID you can sign into your Live Spaces account. If you use Hotmail, Messenger or Xbox Live account you can log in with that account.

If you don’t have a Live ID you need to sign up for your account by clicking on the “Sign Up” button. During registration you are required to provide your email address, password, first name and last name.

After the registration is complete, you can choose the theme you need for your profile and also Live Spaces adds your Messenger friends to your Live Spaces friends list automatically.

Windows Live Spaces has an instant messenger that can be used right from your profile page. You can find more friends from the “Friends” page and you can search your friends by name, age, gender.

You can add modules to your Live Spaces profile. The modules can be related to blogs, Xbox Live, RSS feeds.

Windows Live Spaces worldwide usage:

Windows Live Spaces has 27 million users registered as on August, 2007. Live Spaces has 93 million user profiles. More than 18 million photos are uploaded every day and it has 4 billion photos.

Content by Mark Anderson, www.websites4results.com.au