INTRODUCTION

For today's generation Social Networking Sites are part of everyday life. Sites such as MySpace, Facebook and programs such as iChat, AIM, and Adium have revolutionized the ways in which people communicate. It used to be that e-mail had replaced traditional mailing systems, but now instant messaging replaces phone calls and wall posting replaces even e-mails. Social Networking Sites bring together resources such as email, instant messaging, etc. in one place. The convenience of this promotes fast and frequent communication. Facebook, for example, houses a version of email, instant messaging, quick message posting, discussion forums, picture albums, calendar and social information updates (mini-feed). Social Networking Sites have changed the way individuals communicate with the world, however, everyday designers are finding new and innovative ways in which they can use the sites to connect one person to the rest of society.

Definition
We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site

HISTORY
The Early Years Social networking began in 1978 with the Bulletin Board System (or BBS.) The BBS was hosted on personal computers, requiring that users dial in through the modem of the host computer, exchanging information over phone lines with other users. This was the first system that allowed users to sign in and interact with each other, although it was quite slow since only one user could be logged in at a time. Later in the year, the very first copies of web browsers were distributed using the bulletin board Usenet. Usenet was created by Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott, and it allowed users to post news articles or posts, which were referred to as news. The difference between Usenet and other BBS and forums was that it didnt have a dedicated administrator or central server. There are modern forums that use the same idea as Usenet today, including Yahoo! Groups and Google

Groups. The first version of instant messaging came about in 1988 with Internet Relay Chat (IRC). IRC was Unix-based, limiting access to most people. It was used for link and file sharing, and generally keeping in touch with one another.

The Birth of Social Networking As We Know It Geocities was among the first social networking sites on the internet, launching its website in 1994. Its intent was to allow users to create their own websites, dividing them into cities based on the websites content. In 1995, TheGlobe.com was launched, offering users the ability to interact with people who held the same interests and publish their own content. Two years later, in 1997, AOL Instant Messenger and SixDegrees.com were launched. This was the year instant messaging became popular and it was the first time internet users were able to create a profile and friend each other. The New Millennium Brings the World Closer Friendster was the pioneer of social networking. In its first three months, the social networking website acquired 3 million users, amounting to 1 in 126 internet users being members at the time. Friendster served as the launching point for the widely popular MySpace, who cloned Friendster and launched after just 10 days of coding. In the following years, other social networking websites like Classmates.com, LinkedIn and Tribe.net started to pop up, including what was to be the most popular social networking website in internet history. Facebook.com was launched in 2004 with the intent to connect U.S. college students, starting with Harvard College. In its first month, over half of the 19,500 students signed up. After gaining popularity, Facebook opened its registration to non-college students, and in 2008, Facebook surpassed MySpace as the leading social networking website. Social networking has come a long way since 1978, and we will all witness its evolution for years to come, forever changing the way people connect with one another.

THE NEW MILLENNIUM BRINGS THE WORLD CLOSE

Friendster was the pioneer of social networking. In its first three months, the social networking website acquired 3 million users, amounting to 1 in 126 internet users being members at the time. Friendster served as the launching point for the widely popular MySpace, who cloned Friendster and launched after just 10 days of coding. In the following years, other social networking websites like Classmates.com, LinkedIn and Tribe.net started to pop up, including what was to be the most popular social networking website in internet history. facebook.com was launched in 2004 with the intent to connect U.S. college students, starting with Harvard College. In its first month, over half of the 19,500 students signed up. After gaining popularity, Facebook opened its registration to non-college students, and in 2008, Facebook surpassed MySpace as the leading social networking website. Social networking has come a long way since 1978, and we will all witness its evolution for years to come, forever changing the way people connect with one another.

USES AND PURPOSE

1. Purely Personal Reasons Easily the most common use of Social Networking sites, and the main reason for them existing in the first place, is for personal reasons. The majority of people using Facebook or Myspace keep to the social label. It is used for its original purpose to keep in touch with friends. Some people will go on simply to update their status or view their friends statuses, or to look at photos from the weekends night out. Some use it to connect to people theyve met, a potential girlfriend/boyfriend perhaps, or someone who shares the same interests. One great way of taking advantage of the personal side of Facebook is keeping in touch with people hundreds of miles away, maybe somebody who has gone travelling or moved to the other side of the world. In the past it would have been nigh on impossible to keep in touch, much less keep up to date with what they are doing. 2. Business Networking There is also the opportunity for business types to network and expand their business on the social networking platform. This can take many forms, and take bits of each of points 1 and 2.

Alright, so that might have been a slight exaggeration. You could expand your business through old contacts as well as new, but it doesnt mean they will be the factor that leads to your success. Social networking sites like LinkedIn exist for this purpose; for people to network within a business environment. It does for businesses what Facebook does for students and teenagers, it lets people connect. It could find you a new business deal or could even find you a new job! 3. Marketing Another Twitter success story is Dell and their recent Internet Marketing strategy. Their outlet site sells refurbished PCs, and they post details about the newest ones on their Twitter feed. They also post special offers just for Twitter users, and they send information about sales, along with discount vouchers to their Twitter followers. The company has generated $6.5million in revenue from this venture. This shows the power of marketing on Twitter. This sort of strategy works well for e-commerce sites especially as they can market to an already targeted audience. Social Media Marketing is a trial and error business, so it would be advisable to put into place experiments and do a lot of research before putting all of your eggs into the Twitter basket! 5. Entertainment Going hand in hand with the social element of Social Networking, people sometimes go on purely for entertainment purposes. Myspace is a prime example of this, as many famous artists have been discovered through these sites (sort of sounds like marketing, huh?). Music is a big part but also videos, such as Youtube viral offerings, are easily spread on social networking sites. The newest craze is on Facebook, with all the game applications that have appeared over the last couple of years. The most popular of these is a game called Farmville which has managed to acquire 72.9 MILLION users per month. That is a crazy amount of people to be playing a game about running a virtual farm! Now, a site like Facebook has not really been discovered for many of the other purposes of social networking. How many bloggers do you see marketing, connecting with customers or even conducting any sorts of business through the site? Not many Ill bet.

The Pros Of Social Networking Sites:

The best advantage of social networking sites is that these sites allow you to keep in touch with your friends, classmates, and relatives. It is also the most cost effective way to keep in touch with your people. Here geographical locations are no barrier to stay in touch.

These sites allow you to send and receive messages, upload photos, and videos. As such, they are very interactive as you can get to see what your friends and relatives are up to. With social networking sites, you are not bound by any geographical and cultural differences. You get to meet and know a variety of people whose interests are similar to your own. These sites are a window to different cultures and places. You can build a network of contacts and interact with a lot of people at the same time. As such, you can spread your thoughts and interests to a large number of people. The social networking sites also facilitate you to procure information on any subjects from anywhere. These sites also make it easier and faster to collect the information. Social networking sites can also be a tool to promote your business, services, products, or websites. Due to the huge number of people who regularly use networking sites it has found huge favors among advertisers. 59% of students with access to the Internet report that they use social networking sites to discuss educational topics including career and college planning, and 50% use the sites to talk about school assignments. Some parents and teachers say that using these sites helps students improve their reading, writing, and conflict resolution skills, learn to express themselves more clearly, and meet new and different kinds of students from around the world. Social media can be a powerful tool for social change and an alternative to more traditional methods of communication. During the protests of the Iranian election in June 2009, protestors used Twitter to circumvent government control over phones and the media. Twitter was so important that the US State Department asked Twitter to delay a network upgrade that would have taken the website offline at a busy time of day in Iran. Twitter complied and rescheduled the downtime to 1:30 am Tehran time. The ability to remain anonymous helped protect people who were spreading information in real time.

The Cons Of Social Networking Sites:

The most glaring disadvantage of social networking sites is the risk of identity theft and fraud. The personal information of users can be used by dubious people for illegal activities. Information like the e-mail address, name, location, and age can be used to commit online crimes. Also, many people pretend to be someone else and prepare their online profiles with false information, so as to dupe unsuspecting users. So, if you do not know the person face to face then it will be very hard for you to find the real identity. Another cause of concern is cases of online harassment and stalking. Since the social networking sites, are very poorly regulated so it can be a very fertile ground for people trying to get even with you. They can spread malicious rumor among your friends and also download and morph your photos. Social networking sites entice people to spend more time online and less time interacting face-to-face. The sites offer many time wasting activities that supplant more productive activities. Teens spend an average of nine hours per week on social networking sites. A false sense of security may leave social networking site users vulnerable to security attacks such as hacking, leaking sensitive information, and sending viruses. People trust messages sent through social networking sites and consider them more legitimate than emails. However, social networks do not scan messages for viruses or phishing scams, while most email accounts do scan the messages for spam and viruses through antivirus software.

Social networking sites were created to make money, not to improve peoples' lives. These websites use networks of online friends to accumulate data about people for the purpose of selling advertising. The sites place cookies on the users' computers, gather information, and track interests to show personalized ads. These advertising practices may constitute an invasion of privacy.

Impacts
Impact on education & income: 1.DIGG

2.Facebook

3.Twitter

4.Hi Fi

5.live journal

6.youtube

How do social networking sites gain money?

Venture Capital First things first, most (if not all) social networks start with funding from venture capitalists. Investors are willing to take a risk on a company if they think it can be profitable in the future, so they invest early and hope for a huge payoff down the road. Facebook is a great example of this. We already know how Facebook originated and how it works, but how does it make money? It all started with venture capital (VC). The same goes with Twitter. Twitter and Facebook have each raised several million dollars in venture capital. The goal is to either monetize the company or sell it to a large corporation for an even bigger profit. Monetizing can prove difficult, which leads me to my next revenue stream. Advertisements The most common way for websites to generate revenue is to allow companies to advertise on the site. Web advertising is still an emerging market. Because of the millions of users on a social networking site, advertisers might be willing to pay more for an ad on a social network. Twitter recently had their developer conference called Chirp. At the conference, they discussed various ways to monetize the website, most notably by harnessing advertising power. Their thinking is that since users already use the site to get product recommendations and companies already use it to promote their products, customers may want to buy products directly from Twitter through e-commerce. Well see how their plans pan out in the upcoming months. Creative Products & Promotions Because of the difficulty of monetizing a social network, websites are forced to come up with creative ways to earn revenue. The best example of this is Facebook Gifts.

Facebook Gifts allows users to send virtual (as in not real) gifts to their friends that appear on the recipients profile. The cost of a gift is $1.00 and you can add a personalized message to it.

Effects of Social networking

For many people the advent of social networks has been a boon: the chance to stay in touch with loved ones while in college or the workplace; an area to interact and communicate with people over long distances; a platform to build up a new circle of friends and acquaintances; a means to exchange views and information with those of similar personal or career interests. In reality some social networking sites have become a time-consuming andlabor intensive placebo for real communication, for social skills and for the all important social interaction on a daily basis, face to face. Rather than allowing people to stay in touch with one another, it has generated a new form of society unable to communicate in a meaningful and constructive manner. Communicative skills, the use of body language and language itself have all suffered as a result, with many younger people constructing sentences according to the constricts of a single line 140 characters - rather than exploring the full beauty of their spoken and written languages. With the advent of social networking sites many people seem to have withdrawn themselves from their social circles. They now have the ability to remain in touch through the Internet and, rather than enhancing social contact, tend to spend considerably more time checking to see who has written them a note, changed their status, or uploaded new - often taken from other websites - photographs to their albums. . For younger women this new-found freedom from accepted social standards has brought with it the danger of cyberstalking, partially aided by a lack of commonsense on their own part and a lack of understanding of what information can safely be published and what should be held back. The gay community and many ethnic minorities are also not immune from such attacks. In short, social networks have become a breeding ground for the loss of social skills, for the expansion of prejudices and for the realization of bizarre sexual and social fantasies. They do not enhance societal feeling and play little or no part in the construction of healthy working communities. Their membership is largely unchecked and uncontrolled and lacking in the most basic of enforceable safeguards. Misunderstood by older generations, their influence is likely to increase as the younger users of today become the parents and educators of tomorrow. Whilst not boding the end of an orderly, civilized society as we know and accept it, social networking will bring many uncomfortable changes to our everyday life, to our interactions with other people and to our ability to communicate effectively and without misunderstanding over the coming years.

Statistics
Digg.com

Facebook.com

Hi5.com

Livejournal.com

Myspace.com

Twitter.com

CASE STUDIES
ConnectUHYPERLINK "http://news.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029694,49291837,00.htm" vs. HYPERLINK "http://news.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029694,49291837,00.htm"Facebook: Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum and Christopher Hughes got in big trouble in 2007 when their former Harvard friends filed a lawsuit claiming that Facebook was a rip-off of their brand ConnectU. Zuckerberg did programming work for ConnectU during its start up and is accused of stealing the business model and basic codes to form Facebook. Because Facebook is such a popular social media site, the case garnered a lot of attention, but ConnectUs charges of copyright infringement didnt hold much weight, since "the majority of the allegations date back to the days before either Facebook or ConnectU was a formal corporation," according to CNET UK. In April 2008, though, Facebook settled, awarding ConnectU founders "an undisclosed sum of cash and stock," Boston.com reported.

Miss New Jersey blackmail case: During the summer of 2007, then Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo was scandalized when private Facebook photos were published in tabloids. The pictures were acquired as part of a blackmail attempt and featured Polumbo in PG-13 poses with her boyfriend and drinking at parties. The Miss America organization did not decide to dethrone Polumbo, but she decided to release the photos herself anyway, to clear the air

Twitter hijacking: Twitter users generally enjoy a pretty straightforward social media experience, but a scam in 2008 hacked major celebrity accounts, including Bill OReilly, Barack Obama and Britney Spears. CNN anchor Rick Sanchezs account was also hacked and featured fake tweets that said "i am high on crack right now might not be coming into work today." Gawkers ValleyWag points out that this scam was virtually pointless, as the hackers didnt profit financially from the phishing. Micheal Macalindog:-In October 2008, Michael Macalindong was sentenced to 34 years in federal prison for posing as a teenage girl, soliciting a teenage boy, and trying to blackmail him for not posting sexual videos of himself on Facebook. After striking up a friendship with the boy, the Chicago Tribune reports that Macalindong, 25, "told the teen he could have sex with her" but only if the teen had sex with her male friend first. Macalindong was that male "friend," police said.

Adnan Patrawalla murder case.:- In 2007, sixteen-year-old Adnan, the son of a city based builder, had been kidnapped and murdered for a ransom of Rs 2 crore. Four persons Lalla Kaushal, Sujit Nair, Ayush Bhat and Khimesh Ambavat had been arrested in connection to the case. This case was a rampant example of the misuse of social networking sites (Orkut in this case) to

befriend and then extort money for ransom. London Riots :- Two Facebook users, who allegedly tried to incite mob violence during the London
riots, have been sentenced to four years in prison. Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, and Jordan Blackshaw, 20, were locked up even though their plans to go on a rampage caused no harm. Neither Blackshaw nor Sutcliffe-Keenan were accused of rioting or looting themselves, yet they were given the lengthiest sentences so far in relation to the nationwide disorder.