Blog Off - Social Networking Sites
By Vincent Allen

It seems that the world of Blogging has come of age and is now accepted in everyday society.

Here is our quick guide to Blogging.

Blogging or Social Networking is a method of communicating with friends and family via the internet. Having a blog allows you to upload photos, Share video's, tell people about yourself and let your friends know what you are up to on a regular basis.

Here is a rundown of some of the most popular social networking sites.

Myspace
One of the original sites and currently the most popular. Myspace was purchased by News Corporation (Rupert Murdoch) back in 2005.

Myspace has its critics and seems to be over populated with pretend friends and people trying to sell something.

The most influential part of Myspace has been its dedicated music profiles that have allowed the likes of Lilly Allen and co to become successful overnight.

Facebook
Facebook is one of the fastest growing sites and looks to overtake Myspace during 2008 for the number one slot.

Facebook was launched in the US as an electronic College yearbook but has rapidly expanded around the world and now large corporations such as Microsoft want a share of it.

Facebook does not seem as commercial as Myspace and the adverts are not as intrusive and you are not bombarded with friend requests. The biggest advantage Facebook has, are its applications. Anyone can develop quizzes, games and tools for Facebook members to share between friends.

Yuwie.com
If you think all social networking sites are the same, think again. Yuwie is different in that is pays you! Myspace and Facebook make millions of dollars from advertising revenue as do most popular websites. Yuwie chooses to share the advertising revenue with you.

The concept of all social networking sites are that you are the members, you provide the content, you do all the work and the company such as Myspace and Facebook gets paid for it. Yuwie's approach is that for everytime your profile is viewed 1,000 times (1,000 page views) you get 10% of the advertising revenue.

The concept is nice, but in practice everytime you use Yuwie you are being targeted with lots of advertising. If you can put up with the intrusive adverts everyday then you maybe able to make some money from it.

The Rest..
There are lots of other social networking sites such Hi5, Bebo, Faceparty etc. The question is will they all survive over the next few years or will Microsoft, Google and News Corporation eat them all up? Watch this space

In the purpose of research we have created several social networking profiles. If you are signed up to any of the social network sites, why not add us as your friend.

MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/communityfriend - The Official CF MySpace Profile
http://groups.myspace.com/communityfriend - The Official CF MySpace Group

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Community-Friend/6463819651 - The Official CF Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6407244761 - The Official CF Facebook Group

Yuwie
http://www.yuwie.com/communityfriend - The official CF Yuwie Profile