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Social Networking will Broaden

There is also another trend that may be worth noting: the transformation of the net from websites to dynamic (blog type) websites, to multi-media capable social interaction points.

Facebook, Linkedin, hi5 and other such services with the backup of YouTube and Google Video are definitely on the upswing, and they will become much more important than they are today.

Their ease of use, low cost to the user, and multi media capability will likely make them a preferred channel for citizen reporting, for the publishing of individually or collaboratively produced content.

But even here, the providers would be well advised to curb their dreams of commercialization of the service.

As is already the case with Google, alternatives will spring up from unexpected quarters. Some kind of divine justice that counterbalances the trend of individuals getting lost in the commercial jungle set up by those with money to invest.

Peer-to-peer services that offer the next generation social interaction tools are not far away and we may catch a first glimpse in this coming year.

Users will, and this, in a way, is a perpetual struggle, "take back the net from the corporations" despite all the sophisticated commercial planning.

Some of the great income opportunities that exist today for those providing access to the net or advertising-financed space for others to use may disappear, perhaps very rapidly in some cases.

Mobile computing comes into the picture as a factor in favor of a broadening social network.

The mobile phone and the personal computer will meet somewhere midway and their synthesis will be a boon to social networking. Hopefully there will be increased awareness of the health costs associated with our current microwave-based mobile communication hardware, stimulating a change to other systems that do not have these drawbacks.

First, let's figure out the term social bookmarking. Social bookmarking refers to the practice of saving and categorizing a particular site and sharing it with others via social bookmarking communities. Users can share their own personal Web bookmarks, but they also have the quite wonderful option of discovering other people’s bookmarks and adding them to their own collection. More sites can be discovered, more treasures unearthed, if you work together as a whole instead of by yourself; it’s truly amazing what people are able to turn up together on the Web.

Social networking is related to social bookmarking: you can make as many bookmarks on the Web as you can possibly stand to do, but once you start sharing these bookmarks with other people, interacting with them, starting conversations through a variety of methodologies, you are networking.

Basically, you find something you like and share it with other people in a variety of social bookmarking or social networking communities, using tags to help categorize what it is that you’re bookmarking.

Examples of social networking Web sites:

• del.icio.us: del.icio.us is a collection of favorites - yours and everyone else's. You can use del.icio.us to: Keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music, reviews, recipes, and more, and access them from any computer on the web. Share favorites with friends, family, coworkers, and the del.icio.us community.
• Furl: Furl gives users the ability to save copies of any Web page, search within your own personal archive of Web pages, and share what you find. Furl was one of the very first social bookmarking tools, and continues to be one that people use to find and share good stuff on the Web.
• Reddit: Instantly share your content with the Reddit social bookmarking community.
• Yahoo My Web: Sure, search engines have revolutionized how people obtain information, but nothing takes the place of recommendations from people you know. My Web 2.0 lets you instantly tap into the knowledge of people with related or completely new interests so you can share what they know.
• Stumbleupon: The beauty of StumbleUpon, to my mind: you are able to take advantage of a vast network of dedicated Web searchers who are finding utterly brilliant sites and sharing them with you. One of my favorite ways to explore the Web.