With the spread of the Internet, questions affecting social networks are increasingly heard from various users - what is it and how do they differ from other sites. The most correct answer to them will be the definition of such networks as platforms for building social relations between people who share certain interests, activities, or have real connections outside the Internet. As a rule, the functionality of a social network consists in providing each user with his personal profile, in the ability to create connections with other accounts, as well as in a number of additional services.
Thus, social networks on the Internet are sites that provide services that allow people to create a public profile, add a list of users with whom you can share various information and maintain communication. Most of these resources have a means of user interaction through the global network, for example, through instant messaging.
Social networks - what is it today?
These days, these sites are diverse and include new information and communication tools, such as photo / video sharing and blogging capabilities. In addition, on the basis of many social networks there are so-called Internet communities that unite people according to narrower interests and preferences. Regardless of the target audience and the original purpose, social networks allow users to exchange ideas, photos, messages, events, events, communicate with other people according to their interests, and so on.
What is their main difference?
Basically, these services unite people according to various classification criteria - former schools, universities, workplaces, hobbies, and so on. In each country there is the most popular social network, in which education (groups, publics, communities) are unique in accordance with local traditions. In addition, some services have spread around the world and have become popular among users in most countries (including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.).
History of social networks
In order to fully answer the question "social networks - what is it?", You need to familiarize yourself with the history of their appearance. Initially, such services as Usenet, ARPANET, newsletters and message boards were introduced to ensure communication between network users. Many prototypes of social networking features were present in online services such as America Online, Prodigy, CompuServe, ChatNet, and several others.
Services more similar to modern ones began to appear on the World Wide Web in the form of generalized online communities like Theglobe.com (in 1995), Geocities (1994) and Tripod.com (1995). Many of these early resources focused on bringing people together and making them accessible via chat, and encouraged users to share information and ideas through personal pages, providing easy-to-use publishing tools and free or low-cost hosting. Subsequently, social networks appeared on the Internet using a different approach, connecting people through email and messaging. The first such service in the world was Classmates.com.
The most modern services
In the late 1990s, user profiles became a central element of social networks, allowing users to create lists of “friends” and search for other users with similar interests. New principles for the functioning of these services were developed in the late 1990s, and sites began to try to promote more advanced features for users. This new generation of social networks began to flourish with the advent of SixDegrees.com in 1997, followed by Makeoutclub (2000) and Friendster (2002), and it soon became part of the Internet mainstream. Friendster was followed by MySpace and LinkedIn (the social network of workers). Facebook was launched in 2004. He soon became the largest social network in the world.
Which services are the most popular today?
Facebook is a social networking site headquartered in the United States in Menlo Park, California. As mentioned above, this website was launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg along with his college dorm roommates. The founders initially restricted visitors to the resource to Harvard students only, but later made it available to many other students. Since 2006, this project has become available to all who have reached the age of 13 years.
After registering on the site, users can create a profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages, make status updates, add photos, share videos and receive notifications from friends. In addition, users can join interest groups and classify their friends in lists, for example, highlight the categories of People from Work or Close Friends. Facebook has more than 1.44 billion active users as of March 2015.
Blogs and Business Website
Twitter is an online service that allows users to send and read 140-character short messages called tweets. Registered users can read and write tweets, unregistered users can only read. Users access Twitter via a website interface, SMS or mobile app. Twitter Inc. Office based in San Francisco and has over 25 branches worldwide. In May 2015, Twitter totaled more than 500 million users, of which more than 302 million are active.
LinkedIn is a business oriented service. In other words, it is a social network of employees and employers. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003, it is primarily used for professional communication. In 2006, LinkedIn was expanded to 20 million members. As of June 2013, LinkedIn reported more than 259 million users from more than 200 countries.
The most famous social networks in Russia
VK (originally VKontakte) is Russia's largest social network. It is available in several languages, but is especially popular among Russian-speaking users, in particular, in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Like other similar social entertainment networks, VKontakte allows users to send messages to each other publicly or privately, create groups, pages and events, share images, audio and video, and play browser-based games. As of November 2014, the service had 280 million accounts.
Odnoklassniki (or OK.ru) is a site for searching former classmates and old friends. It is popular in Russia and other former Soviet republics. The site’s administration currently claims to have over 200 million registered users and 45 million unique daily visitors. This resource has been around for eight years.
Livejournal
Considering the social networks of Russia, one cannot fail to mention such a service as LiveJournal. Livejournal, or LiveJournal, is a blogging service in which Internet users can blog, journal or diary. It has traditionally been the case that this resource is used for political purposes to reflect its position. LJ history began on April 15, 1999, when the American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick decided to create a blog in order to share his information with friends. In January 2005, LiveJournal was acquired by Danga Interactive, which sold it to the Russian company SUP Media in 2007. In January 2009, LiveJournal completely “moved” to Russia.
Forecast and Development
This article gave a detailed answer to the following question: "Social networks - what is it?" At present, new and new resources are appearing similar to the above, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to withstand competition and become leaders every year.