Millions of people all over the world use social networking sites every day for a variety of things, ranging from self promotion to just keeping in contact with friends.

Maybe it's just me, but I think that the rise of websites of Friendster, Myspace, and FaceBook were an inevitability. Web-based chats have somewhat become a thing of the past except for Yahoo chats, and the next step from instant-messenger was social networking.

Fact is, social networking has changed the internet in many ways. Both general users and companies have gained from social networking sites like Myspace emerging out of nowhere and quickly becoming popular.

*Keeping in touch

Arguably one of the greatest affects of social networking change over the internet is how people keep in contact with friends and family.

Now, instead of waiting on an instant messenger all day, you can log on your favorite social network and send them a message, long as they have an account with that site.

With more and more teens using the internet and joining social networking sites, the emphasis on a friend list becomes more important for the designers of social networks.

*Video sharing

Clearly, social networking has also changed the way videos are shared on-line. Think about it, Youtube, and Myspace TV are some of the most notable video sharing social networking sites.

Youtube, for example, allows for anyone to upload videos to the website. From there, they can show off those videos or friends, or comment on their friends videos. Video's can also be a way to further customize your Myspace or other social networking page.

*Promotion

Theres no question about this one, social networking websites have greatly changed how self promotion is done on the internet. For example, some social networking sites like FaceBook and Myspace have a great number of artists, and other celebrities trying to promote themselves.

Before social networking, all you could do was join chats, or create a forum to get out word about yourself or your product.

The great thing about this is, you have a larger chance of getting noticed, and of course your audience is greater. Thus giving you a good chance of building a fan base fast yet effectively.

*Advertising

I bet some of you wish that social networks had not changed how advertising is done, right? Now, a lot of advertising is done though Myspace and FaceBook and so on.

Even Youtube sees its share of advertisements, for example a lot of companies upload videos of their product for advertisement.

I have no problem with this, but I know social networking sites make tons of money off Ad-sense by Google and other advertising company services.

Social networking is still pretty young, it's hard to imagine what will be changed a year from now on these websites. How do you think they will change? Only time will tell, right?

Learn more about this author, Matt Remley.
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