A social

networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on

facilitating the building of social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. The main types of social networking services are those that contain category places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with selfdescription pages), and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with American-based services such as Facebook, Google+, tumblr and Twitter widely used worldwide; Nexopia in Canada;[1] Badoo,[2] Bebo,[3] VKontakte, Draugiem.lv (mostly in Latvia), Hi5, Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Nasza-Klasa (mostly in Poland),Skyrock, The Sphere, StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), Tagged, Tuenti (mostly in Spain), and XING[4] in parts of Europe;[5] Hi5 and Orkut in South America and Central America;[6] LAGbook inAfrica;[7] and Cyworld, Mixi, Orkut, renren, weibo and Wretch in Asia and the Pacific Islands. There have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source Initiative[clarification needed]). A 2011 survey found that 47% of American adults use a social networking service.[8]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The social network ing sites ar e gaining a lot of popularit y thes e da ys with alm ostall of the educated youth us ing one or the other suc h site. These have pla yed acrucial role in bridging boundar ies and crossing the seas and enabling them to c o m m u n i c a t e o n a c o m m o n p l a t f o r m . I t h a s b e c o m e a p o p u l a r a n d a p o t e n t i a l m ean for them to sta y friends with the existing ones and to grow up their social circle at least in terms of acquaintances.T h e q u e s t i o n r e g a r d i n g t h e s a f e t y , p r i v a c y a n d t h e l e g a l i s s u e s h a v e b e e n cropping up all this tim e. Through this research we tr y to find out the im pact of t h e s e n e t w o r k i n g s i t e s o n t h e p e r s o n a l a n d p r o f e s s i o n a l l i v e s o f p e o p l e u s i n g them. It is a very subjective question to answer and is very opinion based and thesame is reflected in the research methodology adopted by us.The report is initiated with the definition of the objective followed with the researchmethodology used along with the research design, sample size, methods used for the purpose of conducting survey. It also incorporates the sampling frame and thedata collection procedure.Subs equent to this is the Introduction to the network ing sites along with a brief description of the most popular sites. Then the issues of concern which have comeu p a l o n g t h e w a y i n a l l t h e s e y e a r s s i n c e t h e s e s i t e s g a i n e d p opularity arediscussed. The various issues and concerns of the r e s p o n d e n t s a r e a l s o incorporated there. The next part of the research has the literature surveys whicha r e t h e a r t i c l e s w e t o o k u p f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e d r e p o r t s . W e t h e n

analyzed andi n t e r p r e t e d t h e d a t a a t l e n g t h . T h e l a s t p a r t d e a l s w i t h t h e s u g g e s t i o n s a n d recommendations that the group has com e up with after carefull y anal yzing and incorporating the opinion of all concerned.

OBJECTIVE In this age of globalization, the world has become too small a place thanks to thee l e c t r o n i c m e d i a a n d p o r t a l s . C o m m u n i c a t i o n h a s b e c o m e e f f e c t i v e as never before thanks to the advent of internet. The social n e t w o r k i n g s i t e s h a v e a l s o played a crucial role in bridging boundaries and crossing the seas and bringing allpeople at a common platform where they can meet like minded people or find oldfriends and communicate with them. It has become a potential mean to relationbuilding and staying in touch with all known.Hence the objective that we wanted to achieve through our research is to:Find out the influence of social networking sites on the personal and professionall i f e o f t h e p e o p l e h o w i t a f f e c t s t h e i r r e l a t i o n s , w h a t a r e i t s u s e s f o r e a c h individ uals and how have they been influenced by these sites.

INTRODUCTION Wikipedia states that a social network is a social structure made of nodes(which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or morespecific types of relations (Social n e t w o r k , 2 0 0 7 ) . W i t h t h e r a p i d g r o w t h o f people who use or have access to the Internet, social networking websites are a must for the Internet community to stay in touch with each other. Social networkingweb sites help people keep in touch with old friends, make new friends, distributenew data or product, and many more aspects of our everyday lives.T h e f i r s t o f f i c i a l s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g w e b s i t e w a s C l a s s m a t e s . c o m w h i c h w a s founded in 1995 (Social Network, 2007). What followed was a slow but steadygrowth in numbers of social networking websit es to the overwhelming number of sites we have today. The reason that social networking websites work so well isthat, like their inception, they start of small and then grow exponentially. The sitestarts off with a few people who then tell their friends ab out the site, then thosef r i e n d s t e l l t h e i r friends about the site and soon the site is a huge database o f users connected by friends, acquaintances, or just random people. The web sitesa r e m a d e t o a l l o w u s e r s t o c r e a t e a " p r o f i l e " d e s c r i b i n g t h emselves and toexchange public or private messages and list o t h e r u s e r s o r g r o u p s t h e y a r e connected to in some way. (SocialNetwork 2007).M o s t s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g w e b s i t e s a r e o f t e n d e s i g n e d t o f i t a c e r t a i n t y p e o f community such as the college community being mirrored by Facebook.com or amusic/party community mirrored by MySpace.com. With the rapid growth of socialnetworking web sites and their global scale usage, whatever one feels concerningsocial networking web sites is irrelevant because social networking web sites areon a popularity rise and are here to stay.
HOW DOES SNS WORK While SNSs have implemented a wide variety of technical features, their backboneconsists of visible profiles that display an articulated list of Friends who are alsousers of the system. Profiles are unique pages where one can type oneself intobeing.

After joining an SNS, an individual is asked to fill out forms containing a series of questions. The profile is generated using the answers to these questions,which typically include descriptors such as age, location, interests, and an "aboutme" section. Most sites also encourage users to upload a profile photo. Some sitesallow users to enhance their profiles by adding multimedia content or modifying their profile's look and feel. Others, such as Facebook, allow users to add modules("Applications") that enhance their profile.The visibility of a profile varies by site and according to user discretion. By default,profiles on Orkut or hi5.com are crawled by search engines, making them visible toanyone, regardless of whether or not the viewer has an account. Alternatively,sites like MySpace allow users to choose whether they want their profile to bepublic or "Friends only." Facebook takes a different approach by default, userswho are part of the same "network" can view each other's profiles, unless a profileo w n e r h a s d e c i d e d t o d e n y p e r m i s s i o n t o t h o s e i n t h e i r n e t w o r k . S t r u c t u r a l variations around visibility and access are one of t h e p r i m a r y w a y s t h a t S N S s differentiate themselves from each other.A f t e r joining a social network site, users are prompted to identify others in t h e system with whom they have a relationship. The label for these relationships differsdepending on the site popular terms include "Friends," "Contacts," and "Fans."Most SNSs require bi-directional confirmation for Friendship, but some do not.These one-directional ties are sometimes labelled as "Fans" or "Followers," butm a n y s i t e s c a l l t h e s e F r i e n d s a s w e l l . T h e t e r m " F r i e n d s " c a n b e m i s l e a d i n g , because the connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday vernacular sense, and the reasons people connect are varied (Boyd, 2006).The public display of connections is a crucial component of SNSs. The Friends listcontains links to each Friend's profile, enabling vie wers to traverse the networkg r a p h b y c l i c k i n g t h r o u g h t h e F r i e n d s l i s t s . O n m o s t s i t e s , the list of Friends isv i s i b l e t o a n y o n e w h o i s p e r m i t t e d t o v i e w t h e p r o f i l e , a l t h o u g h t h e r e a r e exceptions.M o s t S N S s a l s o p r o v i d e a m e c h a n i s m f o r u s e r s t o l e a v e m e s s a g e s o n t h e i r Friends' profiles. This feature typically involves leaving "comments," although sitese m p l o y v a r i o u s l a b e l s f o r t h i s f e a t u r e . I n a d d i t i o n , S N S s o f t e n h a v e a p r i v a t e messaging feature similar to webmail. While both private messages and commentsare popular on most of the major SNSs, they are not universally available.Beyond profiles, Friends, comments, and private messaging, SNSs vary greatly int h e i r f e a t u r e s a n d u s e r b a s e . S o m e h a v e p h o t o s h a r i n g o r v i d e o - s h a r i n g capabilities; others have built-in blogging and instant messaging technology. There a r e m o b i l e specific SNSs (e.g., Dodgeball), but some webb a s e d S N S s a l s o support limited mobile interactions (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, and Cyworld). ManyS N S s t a r g e t p e o p l e f r o m s p e c i f i c g e o g r a p h i c a l r e g i o n s o r l i n g u i s t i c g r o u p s , although this does not always determine the site's constituency. Orkut, for example, was launched in the United States with an English-only interface, butPortuguese-speaking Brazilians quickly became the dominant user group. Somesites are designed with specific ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, political, or other identity-driven categories in mind. There are even SNSs for dogs (Dogster)and cats (Catster), although their owners must manage their profiles.W h i l e S N S s a r e o f t e n d e s i g n e d t o b e w i d e l y a c c e s s i b l e , m a n y a t t r a c t homogeneous populations initially, so it is not uncommon to find groups using sitesto segregate themselves by nationality, age, educational level, or other factors thattypically segment society, even if that was not the intention of the designers. EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

ORKUT.COM Orkut i s a n I n t e r n e t s o c i a l n e t w o r k s e r v i c e r u n b y Googlea n d n a m e d a f t e r i t s creator, Google employee Orkut Bykkkten. I t c l a i m s t o b e d e s i g n e d t o h e l p users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Similar toFacebook,Friendster andMySpace, Orkut goes a step further b y permitting the creation of easy-to-set-up simpleforums (called "communities") of users. SinceOctober 2006,Orkut has permitted users to create accounts without an invitation.Orkut is the most visited website in Brazil, being more visited t han Google Brazil,number 2 on the list. In total visits, Google is probably still more popular since itappears as the second (the Brazilian version) and seventh most visited site (theinternational version).T h e i n i t i a l t a r g e t m a r k e t f o r o r k u t w a s t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s , b u t t h e m a j o r i t y o f i t s users are inBrazil. In fact, as of November 2007, 62.9% of the traffic come fromBrazil, followed by 19.2% from India . In December 2007, Google dropped orkut from the drop-down menu of its international homepage . FACEBOOK.COM Facebook is another example of social networking site. Developed by sophomoreM a r k Z u c k e r b e r g o f H a r v a r d U n i v e r s i t y i n 2 0 0 4 , F a c e b o o k . c o m was originallyT h e F a c e b o o k . c o m ( F a c e b o o k , 2 0 0 7 ) . P u r c h a s i n g t h e d o m a i n n a m e o f Facebook.com in August of 2005 for $200,000 the site was originally developed for college and university students as a way to connect with each other (Facebook, 2 0 0 7 ) . H o s t i n g t h e m o s t m e m b e r s f o r a c o l l e g e b a s e d s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g s i t e , Facebook.com is also the number one site for uploading pictures, boasting severalmillion uploads daily. Since its inception, Facebook.com has now been opened toanyone with a valid email address and offers its members options of joining them i l l i o n s o f n e t w o r k s o f p e o p l e w i t h s i m i l a r i n t e r e s t s . I t i s s a i d t h a t 8 0 % o f Facebook.com users check their account daily and that 93% of Facebook.comu s e r s c h e c k t h e i r a c c o u n t a t l e a s t m o n t h l y ( F a c e b o o k , 2 007) Facebook.comgenerates its revenue from advertisement since it b o a s t s a h u g e n u m b e r o f registered users. MYSPACE.COM MySpace is asocial networking websiteoffering an interactive, user -submittedn e t w o r k o f friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and v i d e o s internationally. It is headquartered inBeverly Hills,California,USA, where it sharesa n o f f i c e b u i l d i n g w i t h i t s i m m e d i a t e o w n e r , Fox Interactive Media; i n t u r n , t h e o w n e r o f F o x I n t e r a c t i v e a n d t h e r e f o r e M y S p a c e , New s C o r p o r a t i o n ,isheadquartered inNew York City.

According toAlexa Internet, MySpace is currently the world's sixth most popular English-language website and the sixth most popular website in any language, andthe third most popular website in theUnited States, though it has topped the charton various weeks. The service has gradually gained more popularity than similar w e b s i t e s t o a c h i e v e n e a r l y 8 0 p e r c e n t o f v i s i t s t o o n l i n e s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g websites.T h e c o m p a n y e m p l o y s 3 0 0 s t a f f a n d d o e s n o t d i s c l o s e r e v e n u e s o r p r o f i t s separately from News Corporation. W ith the 100 millionth account being created onAugust 9,2006, i n t h e Netherlandsa n d a n e w s s t o r y c l a i m i n g 1 0 6 m i l l i o n accounts onSeptember

8,2006, the site reportedly attracts new registrations at ar a t e o f 2 3 0 , 0 0 0 p e r d a y . A s o f December 18,2007, t h e r e a r e o v e r 3 0 0 m i l l i o n accounts. HI5.COM hi5 is asocial networkingwebsite, which, throughout2007,w a s o n e o f t h e 2 5 m o s t v i s i t e d sites on the web. The company was founded in 2002 b y Ramu Yalamanchiwho is also the current CEO.As of December 2007, hi5 had over 98million members. In hi5, users create anonlineprofile in order to show informationsuch as interests, age and hometown anduploaduser pictures where users canpost comments. hi5 also allows the user to create personal photo albums and setup a music player in the profile. Users can also send friend requests viae-mailtoother users. W hen a person receives a friend request, he or she may accept or decline it, or block the user altogether. If the user accepts another user as a friend,the two will be connected directly or in the 1st degree. The user will then appear ont h e p e r s o n ' s f r i e n d l i s t a n d v i c e - v e r s a . S o m e u s e r s o p t t o m a k e t h e i r p r o f i l e s available for everyone on hi5 to view. Other users exercise the option to make their p r o f i l e v i e w a b l e o n l y t o t h o s e p e o p l e w h o a r e i n t h e i r n e t w o r k . T h e n e t w o r k o f friends consists of a user's direct friends (1st degree), the friends of those direct friends (2nd degree) and the friends of the friends of direct friends (3rd degree) ISSUES OF CONCERN Although many people dont think of it, social networking web sites harbour manydangerous elements and many people are concerned about some major problemsthat they contain. One such problem is privacy issues. With social networking websites like Orkut.com, Facebook.com and MySpace.com, it is almost too easy toretrieve personal information about someone and use it to harm them. In a casewith MySpace.com, the availability of being able to customize ones own site hasallowed people to use phishing html code to create phishing profiles that allowst h a t p e r s o n t o a c c e s s a n y o n e s p r o f i l e w h o h a v e v i s i t e d t h e p h i s h i n g p r o f i l e . Phishing can often lead to the loss of personal information such as usernames,credit card numbers, and passwords. (Phishing 2007) This in turn causes greatprivacy issues since that person can now access personal information and then sell it off to marketing companies for a profit. (MySpace, 2007) This s e l l i n g o f information to companies has led to the rise in spam emails that we all receive.Another great issue of concern with social networking web sites is that of child safety. Research has shown that almost three out of every four teenagerswho use social networking web sites are at risk due to their lack of using onlinesafety. (Joly, Karine, 2007) A lot of the web sites do have an age requirement but itis easily bypassed by the lying about of ones age. Even if they dont lie about their age the average age requirement is around fifteen years old. Myspace.com has been specifically targeted for these child safety issues after a sixteen year old girlflew to Tel Aviv, Israel to meet and engage in sexual relations with a twenty year old male whom she had met through MySpace.com. (MySpace, 2007) Although alot of the social networking web sites are trying to implement new ways to keepchildren safe, MySpace.com included, predators are finding ways around these new implementations and kids are still naive to the fact that not everyone online iswho they say they are.A t h i r d i s s u e o f c o n c e r n w i t h s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g w e b s i t e s i s t h a t o f c o p y r i g h t infringement. W ith the massive amount of files shared through social networkingweb sites it has to tell sometimes who the original owner of the selected file is.Also, commercial products are being reproduced by individual s and uploaded tothese social networking web sites. YouTube.com is a great example of how copyright infringement can come about using a social networking website. Memberscan pretty much upload anything they want on to YouTube.com to be viewed byanyone who comes across it. This leads to many

people committing copyright infringement and uploading files and video clips that dont belong to them. The onlyreal way that copyright infringement is reported is through the self policing of theY o u T u b e c o m m u n i t y . ( Y o u T u b e , 2 0 0 7 ) W i t h t h e e a s i l y m i s s e d c o p y r i g h t infringement YouTube has been sued many times in the past and is now beingsued for over one billion dollars by Viacom on the claim that YouTube.com has160,000 videos that belong to Viacom on their site without Via coms permission.(YouTube, 2007). SNS IN INDIA: In all the social networking phenomenon in India is small compared t o t h e U S (Indian social networking websites today claim a user base of around 3 millionregistered users) while MySpace, which has 106 million users and Orkut which has67 million have far greater numbers.C l e a r l y , I n d i a n f i r m s h a v e a l o t o f w o r k a h e a d o f t h e m i n o r d e r t o c a t c h u p . However, Siddhartha Roy, CEO, BigAdda, says optimistically: We are early on thecurve. Alok Mittal, MD, Canaan Partners, a venture capital firm, says: When youp u t t h a t i n c o n t e x t , I n d i a n s o c i a l n e t w o r k i n g w e b s i t e s a r e i n t h e i r i n f a n c y . T h e break-even point is longer, but once they attain a critical mass of 40 million users,then VC firms will start investing in them.N a v i n M i t t a l , C E O , fropper.com, s a y s : W i t h t h e I n d i a n I n t e r n e t u s e r - b a s e negligible compared to the US or China, these are very early days. The owner of the blogTrak.indoes a great job of explaining the benefits of social networking for India and what it means for consumers and businesses.

Does Participation in SNS Affect Psychological Well-Being and Self Esteem? Self-esteem and psychological well-being are the two most common outcomes of interest in prior Internet and SNS studies. Researchers typically measure self-esteem using established scales such as the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (used in Ellison et al., 2007). Psychological well-being often refers to various measures that capture an individuals satisfaction with life. Scholars use a variety of scales that include measures of loneliness, depression, and overall life satisfaction (i.e., Kraut et al., 1998).A key debate among researchers considers whether higher use of the Internet affects ones self-esteem and psychological well-being (Kraut et al., 1998; Valkenburg & Peter, 2009a). Such Internet research informs how SNS researchers examine psychological well-being.

Negative Effects of Social Networking Sites for Students

The popularity of the social networking sites increased rapidly in the last decade. This is probably due to the reason that college and university students as well as teens used it extensively to get global access. These social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have become a raging craze for everyone nowadays.

The negative effects of these social networking sites overweigh the positive ones. These sites have caused some potential harm to society. The students become victims of social networks more often than anyone else. This is because of the reason that when they are studying or searching their course material online, they get attracted to these sites to kill the boredom in their study time, diverting their attention from their work. Other negative side effects of social networking websites include the following: Reduced learning and research capabilities Students have started relying more on the information accessible easily on these social networking sites and the web. This reduces their learning and research capabilities. Multitasking Students who get involved in activities on social media sites while studying result in reduction in their focus of attention. This causes reduction in their academic performance, and concentration to study well. Reduction in real human contact The more time the students spend on these social media sites, the less time they will spend socializing in person with others. This reduces their communication skills. They will not be able to communicate and socialize effectively in person with others. The employers are getting more and more unsatisfied with the communication skills of the fresh graduates due to this reason. The effective communication skills are key to success in the real world. Reduces command over language use age and creative writing skills Students mostly use slang words or shortened forms of words on social networking sites. They start relying on the computer grammar and spelling check features. This reduces their command over the language and their creative writing skills. Time wastage

Students, while searching and studying online, get attracted to usin0g social media sites and sometimes they forget why they are using internet. This wastes their time and sometimes students are not able to deliver their work in the specified time frame. Low grades Students get low grades in school due to lack of the desired information and writing skills. Loss of motivation in students The students motivational level reduces due to the use of these social networking sites. They rely on the virtual environment instead of gaining practical knowledge from the real world. Effect on health The excessive use of these sites affect the mental as well as physical health. Students do not take their meals on time and take proper rest. They take excessive amount of coffee or tea to remain active and focused which effects negatively on their health. The overuse of these sites on a daily basis has many negative effects on the physical and mental health of students making them lethargic and unmotivated to create contact with the people in person. The parents should check and balance on their children when they use the internet. They should be on guard whether they are using it for appropriate time period or not. The peers and teachers should also help students make them aware of the negative effects and explain what they are losing in the real world by sticking to these social networking sites. Social Networking/Media Effects: Positive 1. Better information and knowledge access people who have a childhood and adolescent life minus the internet are faced with the difficulty of getting access to vital information and knowledge they need for education. This means that when you need to do research on something, you have to spend tons of effort and go miles in order to find books, periodicals, and other paper sources just to get started. Additionally, you may also need to conduct interviews and surveys so as to get more information about a certain issue youre tackling.

But with the birth of the internet, every single bit of information or knowledge a child or teen needs to learn is compiled in a very large library called the World Wide Web. With social networking, research is a thousand times easier and getting the information you want may be done in minutes. 2. Interactive involvement - Long ago, most children and teens were limited to joining community, neighborhood, and school groups. They were not that exposed to events and happenings outside their community. But with social networking and the internet in general, correspondence to virtually anyone from anywhere is possible. Interactive involvement even reaches as far putting children and teens under the spotlight for discussing and participating in online and social networking forums for issues that concern them. 3. Improved world awareness It is quite usual to think that children and teens are not that keen to knowing issues that shape the world. Politics, social problems, population, health, and the economy are things that the younger populace lacks interest in. But because of social networking, they have no choice but to face the worlds problems and share their opinions. The good thing about this is that their voices are given weight in issues where adults are traditionally the prominent protagonists. Social Networking/Media Effects: Negative 1. Encourages exploitation and abuse We all know that social networking is a product of technology and technology brings new kinds of crime. While many people use it for wholesome, ethical, and healthy reasons, there are also many who utilize it to abuse and exploit others, particularly children and teens. The convenience brought by the web has led criminals to understand that carrying out their trade is much easier and less risky online. The use of fake identities is one advantage these people have in order to be more confident in exploiting and abusing children. 2. Behavioral tendencies and consequences The impact of social media and social networking sites on the behavior of children and teens is very disturbing. Were not saying that social media is bad in and of itself. The misuse of such technology is what makes it bad. For instance, there is the tendency to conform to whats popular without considering whether it's right or wrong - as often seen in cases of cyberbullying. It's much easier for young people to verbally abuse each other online than it is face to face. 3. Health conditions Social media is responsible for revolutionizing traditional communication. However, research has shown that social networking sites can be very addictive. People who use social networking sites for their daily communication are hooked to a point that they neglect health responsibilities, especially their diet. The addictive nature of social media leads to eating disorders, obesity, heart problems, sleep disorders, and other pertinent health issues. Additionally, constant exposure to the internet because of social networking addiction prevents a child or teen from engaging in physical activities and socialization. They become so dependent on it that they start to think making contact with other people outside the social network is not necessary. As such, they become socially and physically stagnant. In actuality, there are more consequences that we have to face as parents when it comes to social media and networking issues. We have to understand that even though that theres no stopping our children from using them, it's possible to maintain control.

Trying to force a child to stop using social networking sites will probably not work too well, but a parent that is lovingly and constantly involved in their childs life will have a much better time keeping watch over their online activity. Through this active monitoring, one can at least limit the negative effects.

A social

networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on

facilitating the building of social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. The main types of social networking services are those that contain category places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with selfdescription pages), and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with American-based services such as Facebook, Google+, tumblr and Twitter widely used worldwide; Nexopia in Canada;[1] Badoo,[2] Bebo,[3] VKontakte, Draugiem.lv (mostly in Latvia), Hi5, Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Nasza-Klasa (mostly in Poland),Skyrock, The Sphere, StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), Tagged, Tuenti (mostly in Spain), and XING[4] in parts of Europe;[5] Hi5 and Orkut in South America and Central America;[6] LAGbook inAfrica;[7] and Cyworld, Mixi, Orkut, renren, weibo and Wretch in Asia and the Pacific Islands. There have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source Initiative[clarification needed]). A 2011 survey found that 47% of American adults use a social networking service.[8]