Because geek is cool and clever

MySpace, Facebook, Twitter June 2, 2008

If there’s one internet buzz term and trend that has refused to bow out over the past couple or more years it is ‘social networking’.

Online social networks can best be described as websites where people share information about themselves and then assemble into groups based on like-minded interests rather than close geographical location to each other.

The huge popularity of social networks first became apparent with myspace.com which, as you will know if you have ever been unfortunate enough to visit it, is a horrible hotch-potch of personal photographs and people saying ‘hi’ to each other.

The MySpace phenomenon left me largely non-plussed, although Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp clearly saw something in it when it bought the site in 2005 for a staggering $580 million.

Not long after the acquisition, all the talk and hype about MySpace started to dwindle partly because as it had started to feature so regularly in the mainstream, all the cool kids suddenly decided it was no longer the in place to be, but also because focus started to shift dramatically to the new player in town – Facebook.

Facebook is undoubtedly a better site. It’s much clearer and easier to read and manages to appeal to an older audience.

For a while I used Facebook regularly and caught up with some old friends and relatives which was great. I still dip in and out occasionally but have quite easily managed to lose the habit of checking every five minutes.

Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook has turned down a $750 million offer for his website, apparently holding out for the $2 billion he actually thinks it is worth.

Such valuations are clearly crazy, particularly given how transient these types of websites have proven to be.

Indeed, the latest trend to really hit the ‘social’ big time is twitter.com which is starting to gain mainstream attention and mentions in the popular press.

Twitter is slightly different and some say a breath of fresh air.

Rather than building up vast libraries of information about yourself, twitter users send out short messages (or ‘tweets’ as they are officially know). These messages can be activity updates, questions or comments but each one can be no longer than 140 characters. Each message is then sent out to ‘followers’ who have opted to receive them.

It sounds puerile but is surprisingly useful, interesting and fun.