Top 10 Social Networking Sites List

Facebook: The most popular social networking website in the world, with more than 800 million active users around the world. It has doubled from 400 million user in less than a year. This puts Facebook at the 2nd position in the list of top websites in terms of overall users (1st being Google), and makes it the top social networking websites. In order to register and create a Facebook account, you need to be at least 13 years old. Once you register, you get access to lots of services.  

Twitter: Twitter is different from other social networking websites, as you can only use 140 characters in each message, known as 'tweets'. Different tools make it very easy to use twitter, and this has added popularity. The online profile of twitter users is small, and includes very little information. You also get to follow people (including celebrities) and keep a track of what is happening in their lives. Twitter ranks 2nd in the list of top 10 social networking websites of the world.

LinkedIn: One of the top social networking sites for business development, with more than 115.8 million users across the world. LinkedIn is popular among recruiters and job seekers alike. The best part of LinkedIn is that it allows people to develop more contacts in the same field, with the intention of spreading their business.

Orkut: Owned by Google Inc.; is the most popular online social networking website in Asia and South America. Most of its users come from Brazil and India. Orkut has approximately 66 million active user in the world, and that puts it in the 4th position in the listGoogle+: Is the latest entrant in the world of social networking, and it is gaining popularity quite rapidly. It was launched as a successor to Google Buzz. This service works along with Google's web-based mail service Gmail. This also means that Google+ users can access to Google's products through a common interface, and this is an advantage. With a user base of 40 million.

MySpace: It is one of the most popular website in the USA. Some of the most popular activities on MySpace include MySpaceTV, MySpace forums, and lots of applications. MySpace its one of the most popular social networking sites in the United States.

Hi5: Another social networking web

site which is quite popular. This website allows you to play online games, listen to music, etc. Hi5 has evolved into more of a social gaming website.

Friendster: This social networking website allows the users to make new friends, based on their preferences, and interact with them. Allows users to share messages, videos, photos, etc. With more than a 100 registered users.

Tagged: One of the most interesting social networking platform, Tagged allows its members to meet people online for free based on their likes and preferences. 

It also facilitates online gaming, and allows the members to share tags and gifts.

Travellerspoint: Quite popular among travel and tourism enthusiasts, it allow its users to discuss their travel experiences through forums and blogs. 

Positive and Negative effects.

 Networking sites are now a great source of communication, but can be dangerous. So, you have to be careful. Here there are some positive and negative points of social networking:


Positive effects:

-Maintain simple and easy interaction among people. Friends who have lost touch can again connect with each other and always stay in touch.

 -Customize their profiles and categorize their friends and family accordingly, and make groups to make chatting easy.

-Makes easy talk with other people.

-Connect with people of different countries, and get to know their culture and way of living.

-It is good platform for getting to know different people.

-Cheaper communication.

-Promoting your business and find potential clients by just sitting at home.

-Sharing pictures and video; create your albums and videos, and post them in your profile.

Negative effects:

-Revealing personal details, that unknown people could see.
-The profile demands the certain interests and contact details that could cause a problem for youngsters.
-Many websites allow unknown people to see privacy settings.
-Create a fake profile, to cause other people problems.

-Online scams, stalking, identity theft, etc.,

-There is also a possibility of your account being hacked..