Social Networking Sites...Everyone's Invited!!!!

It actually amazes me to think that some 5-6 years back, we in India had never listened to what actually were social networking sites..In today's era, they are such immense part of our lives that more than 80 percent of the online community make it a point to visit them at least once a day.With growing awareness, popularity of these sites is souring and communication is becoming better.The main factor behind this is that what was restricted to just the urban masses have reached rural population as well.
As always to explore my database further I referred wiki and yes again,I found some information of my use.Social networking as a concept emerged some 15 years ago.Some of the initial sites were Theglobe.com, Geocities and the Tripod.com.These early sites did not had the concept of separate user profiles.Rather the most they could offer was a home page where some basic information of the user was provided and an email id.This id was the source of contact with fellow users.By the end of the 1990's,Friendster and LinkedIn were introduced.Major revolution as we all are aware came with the inception of Facebook in 2004 in United States and in 2006,its expansion to non US boundaries.Four years hence,it has still retained its top position.
In India there is vast following of orkut.Its a google controlled site named after its developer Orkut Boyukokkton. Orkut has highest number of members in Brazil followed by India. Facebook and Orkut together account for 16 to 17 million users in India. The simplicity and diverse features have helped them gain immense popularity. Picture and thought sharing,recent status and updates,knowledge sharing and ofcourse meeting up with old chums are their salient features.
Initially there were issues with the security of the users particularly the female members. There were no restriction to the amount of data that could be accessed by the outside user to one's profile.But now with advanced technical skills like AJAX feature of newer orkut version,amount of data to be share could be restricted.Further creation of "Hate Communities" was also a grave issue.There were instances in Africa where there were racial abuses.Technology and advancement as always faces hurdles, and they need to be sailed through with a proper solution. But this opportunity of opening up the mind and heart and socializing with peers should not be let loose. After all friends are the best gift of God after parents!!!