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Social networking sites is fast becoming the principal communication and information sharing tool used by people of all ages, and backgrounds in all regions of the world. Social networking sites also referred to as social media sites are developed on the Web 2.0 platform, which offers an architecture for participation and allows users to control their own data and information (Kim, Jeong, & Lee, 2010). Web 2.0 is an extension of Web 1.0 on which individuals deliver content and services in the public domain creating a network effect through which others can access, update and combine content (Cummings, Massey, & Ramesh, 2009). Characteristics of Web 2.0 enable formation of communities via collaboration and information sharing; novel and enhanced data access methods with ‘mashed up’ (combined) information from different sources; and with Ajax supported creative and responsive interfaces (Ankolekar, Krotzsch, Tran, & Vrandecic, 2007). Social networking applications therefore developed on the Web 2.0 platform are designed around an architecture of participation and communal collaboration (Sena, 2009).
Individuals are using social websites for communication, collaboration, information sharing, networking, finding ‘lost’ friends and forming communities. Although business organisations are also resorting to social web sites for advertising, marketing and engaging employees (Singh, Davison, & Wickramasinghe, 2010) the focus of this paper is on ‘social’ user issues and characteristics of social networking. Web 2.0 based social networking sites are in very widespread use with new ones emerging almost every day. It is proposed to identify the most popular sites (each with over 30 million users) and determine their ‘dimensions’ of networking and communication. These are noted in Table 1.
Table 1. | Name (SNS) | Description/Focus | Date of origin | Registered Users | Registration (Age) |
| Facebook | General. | Feb 2004 | 500,000,001 | > 13 |
| Qzone | General. (In Chinese) | | 200,000,000 | Open |
| Twitter | General (Micro-blogging, RSS updates) | July 2006 | 175,000,000 | Open |
| Habbo | General for teens. Over 31 communities worldwide. | 2000 | 162,000,000 | > 13 |
| Bebo | General | July 2005 | 117,000,000 | Open |
| Vkontakte | General (Russian-speaking world including former Soviet republics) | Sept, 2006 | 110,578,500 | Open |
| Myspace | General | Aug 2003 | 100,000,000 | > 13 |
| Tagged | General. | 2000 | 100,000,000 | Open |
| Friendster | General. (Southeast Asia) | 2002 | 90,000,000 | Open |
| hi5 | General. (India, Mongolia, Thailand, Romania, Jamaica, Central Africa, Portugal and Latin America) | 2003 | 80,000,000 | > 13 |
| LinkedIn | Business and professional | May 2003 | 80,000,000 | > 18 |
Netlog
(Facebox/ Bingbox) | General.(Europe, Turkey, the Arab World and Québec Canada) | July 2003 | 70,000,000 | > 13 |
| Flixster | Movies | 2007 | 63,000,000 | > 13 |
| MyLife (Reunion.com) | Locating friends and family | | 51,000,000 | Open |
| Classmates.com | School, college, work and military | 1995 | 50,000,000 | > 18 |
| douban | Chinese Web 2.0 site for review and recommendation services on movies, books, and music. | 2005 | 46,850,000 | Open |
| Odnoklassniki | Connect with old classmates. (Russia and former Soviet republics) | 2001 | 45,000,000 | Open |
| Flickr | Photo sharing, commenting, photography related networking, worldwide | Feb 2004 | 32,000,000 | Open to > 13 |
| Last.fm | Music | 2002 | 30,000,000 | Open |
| MyHeritage | family-oriented social network | 2003 | 30,000,000 | Open |
| Viadeo | Global and Campus Networking (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese) | May 2004 | 30,000,000 | Open |