Social Networking Visibility

A social network service 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 e-mail and instant messaging. Although online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service 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 (Wikipedia, 2010).

These websites exist for the sole purpose of building a networking relationship that does not require constant content to be useful. While argumentatively all content should be updated regularly, these sites are developed for linking to individuals that you may not follow or communicate with again for a extended period of time.

This sites also have great potential to be data miners, as they can use API to collect data about your visitors, facebook games like, Knighthood, Farmville and more are great examples of sticky applications that allow its creators to capture a vast amount of data about their users and opt into notification from them (PuglisiConsulting, 2005).