Social network service
A social network service focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of
people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others,
and which necessitates the use of software.
Most social network services are primarily web based and provide a collection of various ways for users to
interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on.
The main types of social networking services are those which contain directories of some categories (such as
former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and recommender
systems linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace, Bebo and Facebook being
the most widely used in the anglosphere and Friendster being the most widely used in Asia.
There have been some attempts to standardize them (see the FOAF standard) but this has led to some privacy
concerns.
History of social network services
The notion that individual computers linked electronically could form the basis of computer mediated social
interaction and networking was suggested early on - for example The Network Nation by S. Roxanne Hiltz and
Murray Turoff (Addison-Wesley, 1978, 1993) effectively sketched out how computer-mediated communication
-- such as the Internet -- should be developed for this purpose.
There were many early efforts to support social networks via computer-mediated communication, including
Usenet, bulletin board services (BBS), Arpanet, and EIES: Murray Turoff's server-based Electronic Information
Exchange Service (Turoff and Hiltz, 1978, 1993). The Information Routing Group developed a schema about
how the proto-Internet might support this.
Early social networking websites included Classmates.com (1995), focusing on ties with former school mates,
SixDegrees.com (1997), focusing on indirect ties, and CaringBridge.org (1997), connecting family and friends
during a critical llness, treatment or recovery. Two different models of social networking that came about in
1999 were trust-based, developed by Epinions.com, and friendship-based, such as those developed by Jonathan
Bishop and used on some regional UK sites between 1999 and 2001. Innovations included not only showing
who is "friends" with whom, but giving users more control over content and connectivity. By 2005, one social
networking service MySpace, was reportedly getting more page views than Google, with Facebook, a
competitor, rapidly growing in size. In 2007, Facebook began allowing externally-developed add-on
applications, and some applications enabled the graphing of a user's own social network -- thus linking social
networks and social networking.
Social networking began to flourish as a component of business internet strategy at around March 2005 when
Yahoo launched Yahoo! 360°. In July 2005 News Corporation bought MySpace, followed by ITV (UK) buying
Friends Reunited in December 2005. It is estimated that combined there are now over 200 social networking
sites using these existing and emerging social networking models.
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Business applications
Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for entrepreneurs and small businesses
looking to expand their contact base. These networks often act as a customer relationship management tool for
companies selling products and services. Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of
banners and text ads. Since businesses operate globally, social networks can make it easier to keep in touch with
contacts around the world. In many ways business networking on social networks has eclipsed the amount of
networking that takes place on dedicated business networking websites.
Medical applications
Social networks are beginning to be adopted by healthcare professionals as a means to manage institutional
knowledge, disseminate peer to peer knowledge and to highlight individual physicians and institutions. The
advantage of using a dedicated medical social networking site is that all the members are screened against the
state licensing board list of practitioners.
The role of social networks is especially of interest to pharmaceutical companies who spend approximately "32
percent of their marketing dollars" attempting to influence the opinion leaders of social networks.
In contrast, CaringBridge is a nonprofit organization offering free personalized websites to people in a health
care crisis, hospitalization, undergoing medical treatment and/or recovering from a significant medical
condition or procedure. Its functionality is similar to a blog. The service allows family members and friends to
receive consistent information via a single website, and eliminates the need to place and receive numerous
telephone calls. CaringBridge is the largest (for traffic) charitable nonprofit website in the world. By the end of
2007, more than 90,000 people have created a CaringBridge website. In total, those websites have received over
a half a billion visits and 13 million written guestbook messages of love, hope and support.
Languages, nationalities and academia
Various social networking sites have sprung up catering to different languages and countries. The popular site
Facebook has been cloned for various countries and languages and some specializing in connecting students and
faculty.
Social networks for social good
Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social networking model for social good. Such
models may be highly successful for connecting otherwise fragmented industries and small organizations
without the resources to reach a broader audience with interested and passionate users. Users benefit by
interacting with a like minded community and finding a channel for their energy and giving. Examples include
SixDegrees.org (Kevin Bacon).
Typical structure of a social networking service
Basics
In general, social networking services, such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, allow users to create a profile for
themselves. Users can upload a picture of themselves and can often be "friends" with other users. In most social
networking services, both users must confirm that they are friends before they are linked. For example, if Alice
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lists Bob as a friend, then Bob would have to approve Alice's friend request before they are listed as friends.
Some social networking sites have a "favorites" feature that does not need approval from the other user. Social
networks usually have privacy controls that allows the user to choose who can view their profile or contact
them, etc.
Additional features
Some social networks have additional features, such as the ability to create groups that share common interests
or affiliations, upload videos, and hold discussions in forums. Geosocial networking co-opts internet mapping
services to organize user participation around geographic features and their attributes.
Business model
Few social networks currently charge money for membership. In part, this may be because social networking is
a relatively new service, and the value of using them has not been firmly established in customers' minds.
Companies such as MySpace and Facebook sell online advertising on their site. Hence, they are seeking large
memberships, and charging for membership would be counter productive. Some believe that the deeper
information that the sites have on each user will allow much better targeted advertising than any other site can
currently provide. Sites are also seeking other ways to make money, such as by creating an online marketplace
(Facebook's Marketplace) or by selling professional information and social connections to businesses: such as
LinkedIn.
Social networks operate under an autonomous business model, in which a social network's members serve dual
roles as both the suppliers and the consumers of content. This is in contrast to a traditional business model,
where the suppliers and consumers are distinct agents. Revenue is typically gained in the autonomous business
model via advertisements, but subscription-based revenue is possible when membership and content levels are
sufficiently high.
Privacy issues
On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns about users giving out too much
personal information and the threat of sexual predators. Users of these services need to be aware of data theft or
viruses. However, large services, such as MySpace, often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such
incidents.
In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personal information in the hands
of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a profile to be produced on an individual's behavior on
which decisions, detrimental to an individual, may be taken.
Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of data - information having been altered or removed by the user
may in fact be retained and/or passed to 3rd parties. This danger was highlighted when the controversial social
networking site Quechup harvested e-mail addresses from users' e-mail accounts for use in a spamming
operation.
Investigations
Social network services are increasingly being used in legal and criminal investigations. Information posted on
sites such as MySpace and Facebook, has been used by police, probation, and university officials to prosecute
users of said sites. In some situations, content posted on MySpace has been used in court to determine an
appropriate sentence based on a defendant's attitude.
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Facebook is increasingly being used by school administrations and law enforcement agencies as a source of
evidence against student users. The site, the number one online destination for college students, allows users to
create profile pages with personal details. These pages can be viewed by other registered users from the same
school which often include resident assistants and campus police who have signed-up for the service.
Name
Advogato
Annobii
aSmallWorld
Baboo
Bebo
Black Planet
Broadcaster.com
Buzznet
Cake Financial
Capazoo
CarDomain
Care2
Classmates.com
Consumating
CouchSurfing
Cyworld
Dandelife
Dodgeball
DontStayIn
Experience Project
Facebook
Faceparty
Flickr
Flixster
Fotki
Fotolog
Friends Reunited
Friendster
Frühstückstreff
Gaia Online
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Description/Focus
Free and open source
software developers
Books
European jet set and social
elite
General, Popular in Europe
General, Popular in UK,
Ireland, New Zealand and the
Pacific Islands
African-Americans
Video sharing and webcam
chat
Video sharing and webcam
chat
Investing
General (blogs, photos,
music, videos)
Car Enthusiasts
Green living and social
activism
School, College, Work, and
the military
"Consumeetings"
Hospitality
Young South Koreans
Collective narratives or
"shared biographies"
Mobile location-based
service
Clubbing (primarily UK)
Life Expereinces
General, Popular in Canada,
UK and USA
British teens and young
adults
Photo sharing
Movies
Phot Sharing
Photoblogging
School, College, Work,
sports and streets
General
General
Anime and Games
4
Registered
Users
11,000
Unknown
Registration
Open
Open
150,000
12,500,000
Invite-only
Open to people 18 and over
40,000,000
16,000,000
Open to people 13 and over
Open
26,000,000
Unknown
Open
Open
Unknown
1,600,000
Open
Open
8,123,058
Open
40,000,000
21,000
402,000
21,200,000
Open
Open
Open
Open
Unknown
Open
Unknown
333,000
Unknown
Open
Open
Open
58,000,000
Open to people 13 and older
5,900,000
4,000,000
36,000,000
1,000,000
12,695,007
Open to people 16 and older
Open
Open
Open
Open
19,000,000
50,000,000
11,600
93,000,000
Open
Open
Open
Open
3/7/2016
Gather
Geni.com
Grono.net
GuildCafe
Habbo
hi5
Hospitality Club
Hyves
imeem
IRC-Galleria
iWiW
Jaiku
Joga Bonito
LibraryThing
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
LunarStorm
MEETin
Meetup.com
MiGente.com
MindViz
Mixi
MOG
Multiply
My Opera Community
MyChurch
MySpace
myYearbook
Netlog
NewNotes.net
Nexopia
OkCupid
orkut
OUTeverywhere
Passado
Passportstamp
Plaxo
Playahead
Playtxt
Pownce
ProfileHeaven
RateItAll
Reunion.com
Ryze
Sconex
Searchles
Sermo
Shelfari
Soundpedia
Sportsvite
Stickam
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Articles, Pictures, Video
Sharing, Group Discussions
Genealogy
Poland
Games
General
General
Hospitality
Dutch
Music, Video, Photo, Blog
Finland
Hungary
General
Soccer
Books
Business
Blogging
Sweden
General
General
Latinos
Profiles, Photo/Video
sharing, Music
Japan
Music
Relationships
General
Chuches
General
General
General (was Facebox)
General
Canada
Networking/Dating
General
Gay
General
Travel
Business
General
Mobile social network
General
General
General
General
Business
American high schools
Social search and networking
Physicians
Books
Music
Recreational Sports
Video Streaming and chat
5
450,000
750,000
1,350,000
Unknown
82,000,000
50,000,000
328,629
5,000,000
16,000,000
400,000
3,100,000
Unknown
Unknown
214,425
16,000,000
12,900,000
1,200,000
72,000
2,000,000
3,600,000
Open
Open
Invite-Only
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Invite Only
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
145,000
9,830,000
Unknown
7,500,000
1,001,798
70,306
217,000,000
950,000
28,000,000
Unknown
1,158,531
800,000
67,000,000
Unknown
4,700,000
1,200
15,000,000
530,000
70,000
Unknown
100,000
Unknown
28,000,000
250,000
500,000
Unknown
40,000
Unknown
3,500,000
18,000
1,305,051
Open
Invite-Only
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Invite only
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open to MD's in USA
Open
Open
Open
Open
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Student.com
StudiVZ
Tagged.com
TakingITGlobal
TravBuddy.com
Travellerspoint
tribe.net
Twitter
Vox
WAYN
WebBiographies
Windows Live Spaces
Woophy
Xanga
XING
Yahoo! 360°
Yahoo! Mash
Zooomr
Colleges
University Students
General
Social Action
Travel
Travel
General
Micro-blogging
Blogging
Travel/Lifestyle
Cenealoegy
Blogging (was MSN Spaces)
Travel/Photography/Photo
sharing
Blogging
Business
Linked to Yahoo! ID's
Yahoo! New SNS
Universal Photo Sharing
800,000
4,000,000
30,000,000
145,000
760,000
105,000
602,876
Unknown
Unknown
8,000,000
Unknown
40,000,000
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open - 18 or older
Open
Open
23,000
40,000,000
4,000,000
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Open
Open
Open
Open to 18 or older
Invite only while in beta
Open
Blog
A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological
order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online
diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its
topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.
Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog,
videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) are part of a wider network of social media. Microblogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.
As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.
Topics in journalism
Professional issues
News • Reportage • Writing • Ethics • Objectivity • Values • Attribution • Defamation • Editorial
independence • Education • Other topics
Fields
Arts • Business • Environment • Fashion • Music • Science • Sports • Trade • Video games • Weather
Genres
Advocacy journalism
Citizen journalism
Civic journalism
Gonzo journalism
Investigative journalism
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Literary journalism
Narrative journalism
New Journalism
Visual journalism
Watchdog journalism
Social impact
Fourth Estate
Freedom of the press
Infotainment
Media bias
News propaganda
Public relations
Yellow journalism
News media
Newspapers
Magazines
News agencies
Broadcast journalism
Online journalism
Photojournalism
Alternative media
Roles
Journalist • Reporter • Editor • Columnist • Commentator • Photographer • News presenter •
Meteorologist
History
Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online
services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists nd Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the
1990s, Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads". Threads are
topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard". Some have likened blogging to the MassObservation project of the mid-20th century.
1983–1990 (Pre-HTTP)
Usenet was the primary serial medium included in the original definition of the World Wide Web.[3] It featured
the Moderated Newsgroup which allowed all posting in a newsgroup to be under the control of an individual or
small group. Most such newsgroups were simply moderated discussion forums, however, in 1983-84, one
exception, named mod.ber, was created, named after and managed by an individual: Brian E. Redman.
Regularly, Redman and a few associates posted summaries of interesting postings and threads taking place
elsewhere on the net. With its serial journal publishing style, presence on the pre-HTTP web and strong
similarity to the common blog form which features links to interesting and cool places on the net chosen by the
blogger, mod.ber had many of the characteristics commonly associated with the term "blog".It ceased operation
after approximately 8 months. Brad Templeton calls the newsgroup rec.humor.funny (which he founded) the
world's oldest still existing blog.
1994–2001
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The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal
lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. A few called themselves
"escribitionists". The Open Pages webring included members of the online-journal community. Justin Hall, who
began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized
as one of the earliest bloggers, as is Jerry Pournelle. Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an
online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a
wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blogging with
live video together with text, was referred to as sousveillance, and such journals were also used as evidence in
legal matters.
Other forms of journals kept online also existed. A notable example was game programmer John Carmack's
widely read journal, published via the finger protocol. Some of the very earliest bloggers, like Steve Gibson of
sCary's Quakeholio (now Shacknews) and Stephen Heaslip of Blue's News (still running since 1995 with online
archives back to July 1996), evolved from the Quake scene and Carmack's .plan updates. Steve Gibson was
hired to blog full-time by Ritual Entertainment on February 8, 1997, possibly making him the first hired
blogger.
Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages, had and still often have "What's New" or
"News" sections, often on the index page and sorted by date. One example of a news based "weblog" is the
Drudge Report founded by the self-styled maverick reporter Matt Drudge, though apparently Drudge dislikes
this classification. Another is the Institute for Public Accuracy which began posting news releases featuring
several news-pegged one-paragraph quotes several times a week beginning in 1998. One noteworthy early
precursor to a blog was the tongue-in-cheek personal website that was frequently updated by Usenet legend
Kibo.
Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of
tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the
publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct
class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today. For instance, the use of some sort of
browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting
services, or they can be run using blog software, such as WordPress, Movable Type, blogger or LiveJournal, or
on regular web hosting services.
The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by
Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog
Peterme.com in April or May of 1999. This was quickly adopted as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning
"to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog").
After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years
following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools:

Open Diary launched in October 1998, soon growing to thousands of online diaries. Open
Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blog community where readers
could add comments to other writers' blog entries.
 Brad Fitzpatrick, a well known blogger started LiveJournal in March 1999.
 Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative to maintaining a "news
page" on a website, followed by Diaryland in September 1999, focusing more on a
personal diary community.
 Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched blogger.com in August 1999
(purchased by Google in February 2003)
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Blogging combined the personal web page with tools to make linking to other pages easier — specifically
permalinks, blogrolls and TrackBacks. This, together with weblog search engines enabled bloggers to track the
threads that connected them to others with similar interests.
2001–2004
Several broadly popular American blogs emerged in 2001: Andrew Sullivan's AndrewSullivan.com, Ron
Gunzburger's Politics1.com, Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit, Charles Johnson's
Little Green Footballs, and Jerome Armstrong's MyDD — all blogging primarily on politics (two earlier
popular American political blogs were Bob Somerby's Daily Howler launched in 1998 and Mickey Kaus'
Kausfiles launched in 1999).
By 2001, blogging was enough of a phenomenon that how-to manuals began to appear, primarily focusing on
technique. The importance of the blogging community (and its relationship to larger society) increased rapidly.
Established schools of journalism began researching blogging and noting the differences between journalism
and blogging.
Also in 2002, many blogs focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Senator Lott, at a
party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States
would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these comments as a tacit
approval of racial segregation, a policy advocated by Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. This view was
reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggers. Though Lott's comments were made at a
public event attended by the media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until
after blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority
leader.
The impact of this story gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination. Though often seen
as partisan gossips, bloggers sometimes lead the way in bringing key information to public light, with
mainstream media having to follow their lead. More often, however, news blogs tend to react to material
already published by the mainstream media.
Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning
news stories. The Iraq war saw bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go beyond the
traditional left-right divide of the political spectrum.
Blogging by established politicians and political candidates, to express opinions on war and other issues,
cemented blogs' role as a news source. (See Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.) Meanwhile, an increasing
number of experts blogged, making blogs a source of in-depth analysis. (See Daniel Drezner and J. Bradford
DeLong.)
The second Iraq war was the first "blog war" in another way: Iraqi bloggers gained wide readership, and one,
Salam Pax, published a book of his blog. Blogs were also created by soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Such
"warblogs" gave readers new perspectives on the realities of war, as well as often offering different viewpoints
from those of official news sources.
Blogging was used to draw attention to obscure news sources. For example, bloggers posted links to traffic
cameras in Madrid as a huge anti-terrorism demonstration filled the streets in the wake of the March 11 attacks.
Bloggers began to provide nearly-instant commentary on televised events, creating a secondary meaning of the
word "blogging": to simultaneously transcribe and editorialize speeches and events shown on television. (For
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example, "I am blogging Rice's testimony" means "I am posting my reactions to Condoleezza Rice's testimony
into my blog as I watch her on television.") Real-time commentary is sometimes referred to as "liveblogging."
2004–present
In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services and
candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Even politicians not actively
campaigning, such as the UK's Labour Party's MP Tom Watson, began to blog to bond with constituents.
Minnesota Public Radio broadcast a program by Christopher Lydon and Matt Stoller called "The blogging of
the President," which covered a transformation in politics that blogging seemed to presage. The Columbia
Journalism Review began regular coverage of blogs and blogging. Anthologies of blog pieces reached print, and
blogging personalities began appearing on radio and television. In the summer of 2004, both United States
Democratic and Republican Parties' conventions credentialed bloggers, and blogs became a standard part of the
publicity arsenal. Mainstream television programs, such as Chris Matthews' Hardball, formed their own blogs.
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declared "blog" as the word of the year in 2004.
In 2004, Global Voices Online, a site which "aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online –
shining light on places and people other media often ignore" surfaced, bringing to light bloggers from around
the world. Today, the site has a relationship with Reuters and is responsible for breaking many global news
stories.
Blogs were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal, to wit: (television journalist) Dan Rather
presented documents (on the CBS show 60 Minutes) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's
military service record. Bloggers declared the documents to be forgeries and presented evidence and arguments
in support of that view, and CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques (see Little
Green Footballs). Many bloggers view this scandal as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media, both
as a news source and opinion and as means of applying political pressure.
Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have appeared on radio
and television: Duncan Black (known widely by his pseudonym, Atrios), Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), Markos
Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily Kos), Alex Steffen (Worldchanging) and Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette). In counter-point,
Hugh Hewitt exemplifies a mass media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in
"old media" by being an influential blogger.
Some blogs were an important news source during the December 2004 Tsunami such as Medecins Sans
Frontieres, which used SMS text messaging to report from affected areas in Sri Lanka and Southern India.
Similarly, during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and the aftermath a few blogs which were located in New
Orleans, including the Interdictor and Gulfsails were able to maintain power and an Internet connection and
disseminate information that was not covered by the Main Stream Media.
In the United Kingdom, The Guardian newspaper launched a redesign in September 2005, which included a
daily digest of blogs on page 2. Also in June 2006, BBC News launched a weblog for its editors, following
other news companies.
In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas,
Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis.
In 2007, Tim O'Reilly proposed a Blogger's Code of Conduct.
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Types
There are various types of blogs, and each differs in the way content is delivered or written.
By media type
A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a
portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog.[15] Blogs
with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs.
An Artlog is a form of art sharing and publishing in the format of a blog, but differentiated by the
predominant use of and focus on Art work rather than text.
A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog
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By device
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile
device like a mobile phone or PDA is called a moblog.[16]
Genre
Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, project
blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. While
not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog. A Slog
(Site or website log) is a section or 'slice' of a regular business website, which is seamlessly integrated
within the regular website structure but is produced with blogging software.
Legal status of publishers
A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs, either used internally
to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or PR
purposes are called corporate blogs.
Blog search engines
Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents (also known as the blogosphere), such as
blogdigger, Feedster, and Technorati. Technorati provides current information on both popular searches
and tags used to categorize blog postings.
Blogging Communities and Directories
Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers, including
BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. A collection of local blogs is sometimes referred to as a Bloghood.
Popularity
Recently, researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular. There are essentially two
measures of this: popularity through citations, as well as popularity through affiliation (i.e. blogroll). The basic
conclusion from studies of the structure of blogs is that while it takes time for a blog to become popular through
blogrolls, permalinks can boost popularity more quickly, and are perhaps more indicative of popularity and
authority than blogrolls, since they denote that people are actually reading the blog's content and deem it
valuable or noteworthy in specific cases.
Recently, through the mass popularity of sponsored post ventures such as PayPerPost (now known as Izea) a
large number of personal blogs have started writing sponsored posts for advertisers wanting to boost buzz about
new products and services. It has revolutionised the blogosphere almost in the same way that Google AdSense
did.
The blogdex project was launched by researchers in the MIT Media Lab to crawl the Web and gather data from
thousands of blogs in order to investigate their social properties. It gathered this information for over 4 years,
and autonomously tracked the most contagious information spreading in the blog community, ranking it by
recency and popularity. It can thus be considered the first instantiation of a memetracker. The project is no
longer active, but a similar function is now served by tailrank.com.
Blogs are also given rankings by Technorati based on the number of incoming links and Alexa Internet based on
the web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August 2006, Technorati listed the most linked-to blog as that of
Chinese actress Xu Jinglei and the most-read blog as group-written Boing Boing.
Gartner forecasts that blogging will peak in 2007, leveling off when the number of writers who maintain a
personal website reaches 100 million. Gartner analysts expect that the novelty value of the medium will wear
off as most people who are interested in the phenomenon have checked it out, and new bloggers will offset the
number of writers who abandon their creation out of boredom. The firm estimates that there are more than 200
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million former bloggers who have ceased posting to their online diaries, creating an exponential rise in the
amount of "dotsam" and "netsam" — that is to say, unwanted objects on the Web.
It was reported by Chinese media Xinhua that the blog of Xu Jinglei received more than 50 million page views,
claiming to be the most popular blog in the world.[20] In mid-2006, it also had the most incoming links of any
blogs on the Internet.
Blurring with the mass media
Many bloggers, particularly those engaged in participatory journalism, differentiate themselves from the
mainstream media, while others are members of that media working through a different channel. Some
institutions see blogging as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing messages directly to the public.
Some critics worry that bloggers respect neither copyright nor the role of the mass media in presenting society
with credible news. Bloggers and other contributors to user generated content are behind Time magazine
naming their 2006 person of the year as "you".
Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blogs — well over 300, according to
CyberJournalist.net's J-blog list. The first known use of a weblog on a news site was in August 1998, when
Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie.
Blogs have also had an influence on minority languages, bringing together scattered speakers and learners; this
is particularly so with blogs in Gaelic languages, whose creators can be found as far away from traditional
Gaelic areas as Kazakhstan and Alaska. Minority language publishing (which may lack economic feasibility)
can find its audience through inexpensive blogging.
There are many examples of bloggers who have published books based on their blogs, e.g., Salam Pax, Ellen
Simonetti, Jessica Cutler, ScrappleFace. Blog-based books have been given the name blook. A prize for the best
blog-based book was initiated in 2005, the Lulu Blooker Prize. However success has been elusive offline, with
many of these books not selling as well as their blogs. Only sex blogger Tucker Max cracked the New York
Times Bestseller List.
Blogging consequences
The emergence of blogging has brought a range of legal liabilities and other often unforeseen consequences.
One area of concern is the issue of bloggers releasing proprietary or confidential information. Another area of
concern is blogging and defamation. A third area of concern is employees who write about aspects of their place
of employment or their personal lives, and then face loss of employment or other adverse consequences. A
number of examples of blogging and its sometimes negative or unforeseen consequences are cited here.
Defamation or liability
Several cases have been brought before the national courts against bloggers concerning issues of defamation or
liability. The courts have returned with mixed verdicts. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), in general, are
immune from liability for information that originates with Third Parties (U.S. Communications Decency Act
and the EU Directive 2000/31/EC).
In John Doe v. Patrick Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court held that stringent standards had to be met to
unmask anonymous bloggers, and also took the unusual step of dismissing the libel case itself (as unfounded
under American libel law) rather than referring it back to the trial court for reconsideration. In a bizarre twist,
the Cahills were able to obtain the identity of John Doe, who turned out to be the person they suspected: the
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town's mayor, Councilman Cahill's political rival. The Cahills amended their original complaint, and the mayor
settled the case rather than going to trial.
In Malaysia, eight Royal Dutch Shell Group companies collectively obtained in June 2004 an Interim Injunction
and Restraining Order against a Shell whistleblower, a Malaysian geologist and former Shell employee, Dr John
Huong. The proceedings are in respect of alleged defamatory postings attributed to Dr Huong on a weblog
hosted in North America but owned and operated by an 89 year old British national, Alfred Donovan, a long
term critic of Shell. The Shell action is directed solely against Dr Huong. Further proceedings against Dr Huong
were issued by the same plaintiff companies in 2006 in respect of publications on Donovan weblog sites in 2005
and 2006. The further proceedings include a "Notice to Show Cause" relating to a "contempt of court" action
potentially punishable by imprisonment. The contempt hearing and a related application by the eight Royal
Dutch Shell plaintiff companies for Dr Huong to produce Alfred Donovan for cross-examination in connection
with an affidavit Donovan provided, was scheduled to be heard in the High Court of Malay in Kuala Lumpur on
17 August 2006. Donovan's principle weblog is royaldutchshellplc.com. In January 2007, two prominent
political bloggers, Jeff Ooi and Ahiruddin Attan were sued by pro-government newspaper, The New Straits
Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad, Kalimullah bin Masheerul Hassan, Hishamuddin bin Aun and Brenden John a/l
John Pereira over an alleged defamation. The plaintiff was supported by the Malaysian government. Following
the suit, the Malaysian government proposed to "register" all bloggers in Malaysia in order to better control
parties against their interest. [27]. This is the first such legal case against bloggers in the country.
In Britain, a college lecturer contributed to a blog in which she referred to a politician (who had also expressed
his views in the same blog) using various uncomplimentary names, including referring to him as a "Nazi". The
politician found out the real name of the lecturer (she wrote under a pseudonym) via the ISP and successfully
sued her for £10,000 in damages and £7,200 costs.
In the United States blogger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation and publication of trade
secrets in 2005. According to Wired Magazine, Traffic Power had been "banned from Google for allegedly
rigging search engine results." Wall and other "white hat" search engine optimization consultants had exposed
Traffic Power in what they claim was an effort to protect the public. The case was watched by many bloggers
because it addressed the murky legal question of who's liable for comments posted on blogs.
Employment
Losing one's employment as a consequence of personal blog commentary about the place of employment has
become so commonplace that there is now an informal verb for the event: "dooced". The word dooce originates
from the pseudonym of Heather Armstrong, who lost her job after writing satirical accounts of her place of
employment on her personal blog. In general, attempts at hiding the blogger's name and/or the place of
employment in anonymity have proved ineffective at protecting the blogger. Employees who blog about
elements of their place of employment raise the issue of employee branding, since their activities can begin to
affect the brand recognition of their employer.
Ellen Simonetti, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, was fired by the airline for photos of herself in uniform on
an airplane and comments posted on her blog "Queen of the Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant" which her
employer deemed inappropriate. This case highlighted the issue of personal blogging and freedom of expression
vs. employer rights and responsibilities, and so it received wide media attention. Simonetti took legal action
against the airline for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages".The suit is
postponed while Delta is in bankruptcy proceedings (court docket).
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In the spring of 2006, Erik Ringmar, a tenured senior lecturer at the London School of Economics was ordered
by the convenor of his department to "take down and destroy" his blog in which he discussed the quality of
education at the school..
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was recently fined during the 2006 NBA playoffs for criticizing
NBA officials on the court and in his blog.
Mark Jen was terminated in 2005 after a mere 10 days of employment at Google for discussing corporate
secrets on his personal blog.
In India, blogger Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM after his posts exposing the false claims of a management
school, IIPM, led to management of IIPM threatening to burn their IBM laptops as a sign of protest against him.
Jessica Cutler, aka "The Washingtonienne", blogged about her sex life while employed as a congressional
assistant. After the blog was discovered and she was fired,[40] she wrote a novel based on her experiences and
blog: The Washingtonienne: A Novel. Cutler is presently being sued by one of her former lovers in a case that
could establish the extent to which bloggers are obligated to protect the privacy of their real life associates.
Catherine Sanderson, aka Petite Anglaise, lost her job in Paris at a British accountancy firm as a consequence of
blogging. Although given in the blog in a fairly anonymous manner, some of the descriptions of the firm and
some of its people were less than flattering. Sanderson later won a compensation claim case against the British
firm, however.
On the other hand, Penelope Trunk, writing in the Globe in 2006, was one of the first to point out that a large
portion of bloggers are professionals, and a well written blog can actually help attract employers.
Political dangers
Blogging can sometimes have unforeseen consequences in politically sensitive areas. Blogs are much harder to
control than broadcast or even print media. As a result totalitarian and authoritarian regimes often seek to
suppress down blogs, or to punish those who maintain them.
In Singapore, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s anti-sedition law for posting antiMuslim remarks in their weblogs.
Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer was charged with insulting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and an
Islamic institution through his online blog. It is the first time in the history of Egypt that a blogger was
prosecuted. After a brief trial session that took place in Alexandria, the blogger was found guilty and sentenced
to prison terms of three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mubarak.
Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was arrested in April 2007 for things written in his blog. Monem,
for whom a campaign has been taken up at, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
After expressing opinions in his personal weblog about the state of the Sudanese armed forces, Jan Pronk,
United Nations Special Representative for the Sudan, was given three days notice to leave Sudan. The Sudanese
army had demanded his deportation.
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Other consequences
One unfortunate consequence of blogging is the possibility of attacks or threats against the blogger, sometimes
without apparent reason. Kathy Sierra, author of the innocuous blog Creating Passionate Users, was the target
of such vicious threats and misogynistic insults that she canceled her keynote speech at a technology conference
in San Diego, fearing for her safety. While a blogger's anonymity is often tenuous, internet trolls who would
attack a blogger with threats or insults can be emboldened by anonymity. Sierra and supporters initiated an
online discussion aimed at countering abusive online behavior, and developed a blogger's code of conduct.
Collaborative blog
A collaborative blog is a type of weblog which publishes posts written by multiple users. The majority of high
profile collaborative blogs are based around a single uniting theme, such as politics or technology.
While the traditional popular (and rather insulting) view of the weblog is that of the lone blogger hunched over
his or her keyboard in their parents' basement, in recent years the blogosphere has seen the emergence and
growing popularity of more collaborative efforts, often set up by already established bloggers wishing to pool
time and resources to both reduce the pressure of maintaining a popular website and to attract a larger
readership.
Types
While every collaborative blog is unique they can usually be placed in one of two broad categories:
Invite only
An Invite Only collaborative blog is one in which a founder blogger personally selects a small group of cobloggers, inviting them to contribute to his or her blog. The Invite Only blog typically focues on a single
common interest subject - i.e. politics, legal issues or, occasionally, comedy.
For instance, in July of 2003 Chris Bertram established Crooked Timber, a collaborative Invite Only blog
frequented by such established bloggers and academics as Kieran Healy, Ted Barlow and Henry Farrell,
beginning with the introductory post:
Crooked Timber is a cabal of philosophers, politicians manque, would-be journalists, sociologues, financial gurus,
dilletantes and flaneurs who have assembled to bring you the benefit of their practical and theoretical wisdom on matters
historical, literary, political, philosophical, economic, sociological, cultural, sporting, artistic, cinematic, musical, operatic,
comedic, tragic, poetic, televisual etc. etc., all from perspectives somewhere between Guy Debord, Henry George and Dr
Stephen Maturin. We hope you’ll enjoy the show.
Open invite
Conversely, Open Invite collaborative blogs allow any user to register for a blogging account, providing instant
access. Perhaps the most famous of these blogs is DailyKos, a left-leaning collaborative blog founded in 2002
by Markos Moulitsas. DailyKos allows bloggers the opportunity to post their opinions on the site without preapproval of the content.
Open Invite collaborative blogs succeed on the basis that the community acts to weed out trolls, spammers and
other troublemakers. Much like online forums (and Wikipedia itself), the accessible nature of the Open Invite
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collaborative site is protected by dedicated moderators and fellow bloggers who will act quickly to quell any
signs of spamming.
Advantages
For bloggers
In recent years the blogosphere has seen the emergence of many new Invite Only collaborative blogs, each
accepting contributions from a group of established bloggers. While it may be unfair to ascribe this trend to any
particular cause it is often the case that the pressures of maintaining a popular individual blog for an extended
period of time can become too great, leading the successful blogger to naturally tend towards a lower pressure
collaborative effort.
On well-known example of this phenomenon can be found at Protein Wisdom, a popular blog written by surreal
conservative Jeff Goldstein. A much publicised incident in which Goldstein was harassed by University of
Arizona adjunct lecturer Deborah Frisch - combined with various other real-life obligations - led Goldstein to
retool Protein Wisdom as a collaborative site frequented by a number of guest posters while Goldstein partially
withdrew. Today Goldstein blogs both at Protein Wisdom and the high profile collaborative blog Pajamas
Media.
Collaborative blogs (especially of the Open Invite variety) allow those without their own personal site (or those
with poorly-trafficked sites) the opportunity to present their opinions to a much larger audience than they would
typically have access.
For readers
A primary advantage for the readers of collaborative blogs is the simple fact that a collaborative effort usually
make for a more regularly updated site. It is not unusual to find collaborative weblogs publishing new material
24 hours a day, allowing readers the opportunity to read new material on an almost constant basis.
Disadvantages
While Open Invite collaborative blogs encourage vibrant discussion on such subjects as politics and current
affairs they unfortunately tend to attract bloggers who are more interested in promoting personal websites and
baiting readers with controversial viewpoints. The task of policing a large collaborative weblog can be
enormous, requiring the dedication of community-minded moderators to remove/modify material that conflicts
with the terms of service and general ethos of the site.
In Invite Only collaborative blogs the problems can become much more serious, if easier to police. While most
Invite Only collaborative blogs consist of a small number of like-minded bloggers it is often the case that
individuals within the group differ in opinion on divisive issues (i.e. abortion or the War on Terror). While infighting on these blogs can make for interesting reading it can sometimes become a problem.
Popularity
In recent years the popularity of collaborative blogs has soared. In fact, at time of writing seven of the top ten
weblogs listed in N.Z. Bear's Blog Ecosystem (a popular league table of blogs based on the number of incoming
links) employ collaboration of some sort.
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In addition to the growth in traditional collaborative blogs the last two years has seen the emergence of a
professional variety of collaboration - made up of either professional, paid commentators such as The
Huffington Post (though arguably The Post does not qualify as a true blog) or high profile bloggers engaged in a
profit-sharing scheme (i.e. Pajamas Media).
Wiki
A wiki is software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. Wikis are often used to create
collaborative websites and to power community websites. They are being installed by businesses to provide
affordable and effective Intranets and for Knowledge Management. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first
wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work". ne of the
best known wikis is Wikipedia.
History
Wiki Wiki is a reduplication of wiki, a Hawaiian word for "fast." In English, "wiki" is an abbreviation of it.
WikiWikiWeb was the first site to be called a wiki. Ward Cunningham started developing WikiWikiWeb in
1994, and installed it on the Internet domain c2.com on March 25, 1995. It was named by Cunningham, who
remembered a Honolulu International Airport counter employee telling him to take the "Wiki Wiki" Chance
RT-52 shuttle bus line that runs between the airport's terminals. According to Cunningham, "I chose wiki-wiki
as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web."
Cunningham was in part inspired by Apple's HyperCard. Apple had designed a system allowing users to create
virtual "card stacks" supporting links among the various cards. Cunningham developed Vannevar Bush's ideas
by allowing users to "comment on and change one another's text". In the early 2000s, wikis were increasingly
adopted in enterprise as collaborative software. Common uses included project communication, intranets, and
documentation, initially for technical users. Today some companies use wikis as their only collaborative
software and as a replacement for static intranets. There may be greater use of wikis behind firewalls than on
the public Internet.
On March 15, 2007, wiki entered the Oxford English Dictionary Online.
Characteristics
A wiki enables documents to be written collaboratively, in a simple markup language using a web browser. A
single page in a wiki is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire collection of pages, which are usually well
interconnected by hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing, and
searching through information.
A defining characteristic of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be created and updated.
Generally, there is no review before modifications are accepted. Many wikis are open to alteration by the
general public without requiring them to register user accounts. Sometimes logging in for a session is
recommended, to create a "wiki-signature" cookie for signing edits automatically. Many edits, however, can be
made in real-time and appear almost instantly online. This can facilitate abuse of the system. Private wiki
servers require user authentication to edit pages, and sometimes even to read them.
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Editing wiki pages
Ordinarily, the structure and formatting of wiki pages are specified with a simplified markup language,
sometimes known as "wikitext". For example, starting a line of text with an asterisk ("*") is often used to enter it
in a bulleted list. The style and syntax of wikitexts can vary greatly among wiki implementations, some of
which also allow HTML tags.
The reason for taking this approach is that HTML, with its many cryptic tags, is not very legible, making it hard
to edit. Wikis therefore favour plain text editing, with fewer and simpler conventions than HTML, for indicating
style and structure.
MediaWiki syntax
Equivalent HTML
Rendered output
"Take some more tea," the
March Hare said to Alice,
very earnestly.
<p>"Take some more tea," the March
Hare said to Alice, very
earnestly.</p>
"Take some more tea," the
March Hare said to Alice,
very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice
replied in an offended tone:
"so I can't take more."
<p>"I've had nothing yet," Alice
replied in an offended tone: "so I
can't take more."</p>
"I've had nothing yet,"
Alice replied in an offended
tone: "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take
''less''," said the Hatter:
"it's very easy to take
''more'' than nothing."
<p>"You mean you can't take
<i>less</i>," said the Hatter:
"it's very easy to take <i>more</i>
than nothing."</p>
"You mean you can't take
less," said the Hatter: "it's
very easy to take more than
nothing."
(Quotation above from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)
Although limiting access to HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) of wikis limits user ability to alter the
structure and formatting of wiki content, there are some benefits. Limited access to CSS promotes consistency
in the look and feel and having JavaScript disabled prevents a user from implementing code, which may limit
access for other users.
Increasingly, wikis are making "WYSIWYG" ("What You See Is What You Get") editing available to users,
usually by means of JavaScript or an ActiveX control that translates graphically entered formatting instructions,
such as "bold" and "italics", into the corresponding HTML tags or wikitext. In those implementations, the
markup of a newly edited, marked-up version of the page is generated and submitted to the server transparently,
and the user is shielded from this technical detail.
Many implementations (for example MediaWiki) allow users to supply an "edit summary" when they edit a
page. This is a short piece of text (usually one line) summarizing the changes. It is not inserted into the article,
but is stored along with that revision of the page, allowing users to explain what has been done and why; this is
similar to a log message when committing changes to a revision control system.
Most wikis keep a record of changes made to wiki pages; often every version of the page is stored. This means
that authors can revert to an older version of the page, should it be necessary because a mistake has been made
or the page has been vandalised.
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Navigation
Within the text of most pages there are usually a large number of hypertext links to other pages. This form of
non-linear navigation is more "native" to wiki than structured/formalized navigation schemes. That said, users
can also create any number of index or table of contents pages, with hierarchical categorization or whatever
form of organization they like. These may be challenging to maintain by hand, as multiple authors create and
delete pages in an ad hoc manner. Wikis generally provide one or more ways to categorize or tag pages, to
support the maintenance of such index pages.
Most wikis have a backlink feature, an easy way to see what pages link to the page you're currently on.
It is typical in a wiki to create links to pages that do not yet exist, as a way to invite others to share what they
know about a subject new to the wiki.
Linking and creating pages
Links are created using a specific syntax, the so-called "link pattern".
Originally, most wikis used CamelCase to name pages and create links. These are produced by capitalizing
words in a phrase and removing the spaces between them (the word "CamelCase" is itself an example). While
CamelCase makes linking very easy, it also leads to links which are written in a form that deviates from the
standard spelling. CamelCase-based wikis are instantly recognizable because they have many links with names
such as "TableOfContents" and "BeginnerQuestions". It is possible for a wiki to render the visible anchor for
such links "pretty" by reinserting spaces, and possibly also reverting to lower case. However, this reprocessing
of the link to improve the readability of the anchor is limited by the loss of capitalization information caused by
CamelCase reversal. For example, "RichardWagner" should be rendered as "Richard Wagner", whereas
"PopularMusic" should be rendered as "popular music". There is no easy way to determine which capital letters
should remain capitalized. As a result, many wikis now have "free linking" using brackets, and some disable
CamelCase by default.
Searching
Most wikis offer at least a title search, and sometimes a full-text search. The scalability of the search depends
on whether the wiki engine uses a database. Indexed database access is necessary for high speed searches on
large wikis. Alternatively, external search engines such as Google can sometimes be used on wikis with limited
searching functions in order to obtain more precise results. However, a search engine's indexes can be very out
of date (days, weeks or months) for many websites.
Trust and security
Controlling changes
History comparison reports highlight the changes between two revisions of a page.
Wikis are generally designed with the philosophy of making it easy to correct mistakes, rather than making it
difficult to make them. Thus, while wikis are very open, they provide a means to verify the validity of recent
additions to the body of pages. The most prominent, on almost every wiki, is the "Recent Changes" page—a
specific list numbering recent edits, or a list of all the edits made within a given time frame. Some wikis can
filter the list to remove minor edits and edits made by automatic importing scripts ("bots").
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From the change log, other functions are accessible in most wikis: the Revision History showing previous page
versions; and the diff feature, highlighting the changes between two revisions. Using the Revision History, an
editor can view and restore a previous version of the article. The diff feature can be used to decide whether or
not this is necessary. A regular wiki user can view the diff of an edit listed on the "Recent Changes" page and, if
it is an unacceptable edit, consult the history, restoring a previous revision; this process is more or less
streamlined, depending on the wiki software used.
In case unacceptable edits are missed on the "Recent Changes" page, some wiki engines provide additional
content control. It can be monitored to ensure that a page, or a set of pages, keeps its quality. A person willing
to maintain pages will be warned of modifications to the pages, allowing him or her to verify the validity of new
editions quickly.
Trustworthiness
Critics of publicly-editable wiki systems argue that these systems could be easily tampered with; while
proponents argue that the community of users can catch malicious content and correct it. Lars Aronsson, a data
systems specialist, summarizes the controversy as follows:
“
Most people, when they first learn about the wiki concept, assume that a website that can be edited
by anybody would soon be rendered useless by destructive input. It sounds like offering free spray
cans next to a grey concrete wall. The only likely outcome would be ugly graffiti and simple
tagging, and many artistic efforts would not be long lived. Still, it seems to work very well.
”
Security
The open philosophy of most wikis, allowing anyone to edit content, does not ensure that all editors are wellmeaning. Vandalism can be a major problem. In larger wiki sites, such as those run by the Wikimedia
Foundation, vandalism can go unnoticed for a period of time. Wikis by their very nature are susceptible to
intentional disruption, known as "trolling". Wikis tend to take a soft security[9] approach to the problem of
vandalism; making damage easy to undo rather than attempting to prevent damage. Larger wikis often employ
sophisticated methods, such as bots that automatically identify and revert vandalism and JavaScript
enhancements that show how many characters have been added in each edit. In this way vandalism can be
limited to just "minor vandalism" or "sneaky vandalism", where the characters added/eliminated are so few that
bots do not identify them and users do not pay much attention to them.
The amount of vandalism a wiki receives depends on how open the wiki is. For instance, some wikis allow
unregistered users, identified by their IP addresses, to edit content, whilst others limit this function to just
registered users. What most wikis do is allow IP editing, but privilege registered users with some extra
functions to lend them a hand in editing; on most wikis, becoming a registered user is very simple and can be
done in seconds, but detains the user from using the new editing functions until either some time passes, as in
the English Wikipedia, where registered users must wait for three days after creating an account in order to gain
access to the new tool, or until several constructive edits have been made in order to prove the user's
trustworthiness and usefulness on the system, as in the Portuguese Wikipedia, where users require at least 15
constructive edits before authorization to use the added tools. Basically, "closed up" wikis are more secure and
reliable but grow slowly, whilst more open wikis grow at a steady rate but result in being an easy target for
vandalism. A clear example of this would be that of Wikipedia and Citizendium. The first is extremely open,
allowing anyone with a computer and internet access to edit it, making it grow rapidly, whilst the latter requires
the users' real name and a biography of themselves, affecting the growth of the wiki but creating an almost
"vandalism-free" ambiance.
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Wiki software architecture
Nearly all wikis are implemented as server software. However, some have been implemented purely on the
client-side using Javascript, and some have been built on top of peer-to-peer networks.
Wiki communities
Many wiki communities are private, particularly within enterprises. They are often used as internal
documentation for in-house systems and applications. The "open to everyone", all-encompassing nature of
Wikipedia is a significant factor in its growth, while many other wikis are highly specialized.
There also exist WikiNodes which are pages on wikis that describe related wikis. They are usually organized as
neighbors and delegates. A neighbor wiki is simply a wiki that may discuss similar content or may otherwise be
of interest. A delegate wiki is a wiki that agrees to have certain content delegated to that wiki.
One way of finding a wiki on a specific subject is to follow the wiki-node network from wiki to wiki; another is
to take a Wiki "bus tour," for example: Wikipedia's Tour Bus Stop. Domain names containing "wiki" are
growing in popularity to support specific niches.
For those interested in creating their own wiki, there are many publicly available "wiki farms", some of which
can also make private, password-protected wikis. PeanutButterWiki, Socialtext, Wetpaint, and Wikia are
popular examples of such services. For more information, see List of wiki farms. Note that free wiki farms
generally contain advertising on every page. For those interested in how to build a successful wiki community,
and encourage wiki use, Wikipatterns is a guide to the stages of wiki adoption and a collection of communitybuilding and content-building strategies.
The English-language Wikipedia has the largest user base among all wikis and ranks in the top twenty among
all websites in terms of traffic. Other large wikis include the WikiWikiWeb, Memory Alpha, Wikitravel,
World66 and Susning.nu, a Swedish-language knowledge base. The largest wikis are listed and updated on
Wikimedia's "meta" wiki.
Web 2.0
On September 30, 2005, Tim O'Reilly wrote a piece summarizing his view of Web 2.0. The mind-map pictured
above (constructed by Markus Angermeier on November 11, 2005) sums up some of the memes of Web 2.0,
with example-sites and services attached.
In studying and/or promoting web-technology, the phrase Web 2.0 can refer to a perceived second generation of
web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies —
which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. The term gained currency following
the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World
Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software
developers and end-users use webs. According to Tim O'Reilly,
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an
attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
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Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a
meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of
the Web.
An IBM social networking analyst, Dario de Judicibus, has proposed a different definition which is more
focused on social interactions and architectural implementation:
"Web 2.0 is a knowledge-oriented environment where human interactions generate content that is published, managed
and used through network applications in a service-oriented architecture."
Defining "Web 2.0"
In alluding to the version-numbers that commonly designate software upgrades, the phrase "Web 2.0" hints at
an improved form of the World Wide Web. Technologies such as weblogs (blogs), social bookmarking, wikis,
podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, and web application
programming interfaces (APIs) provide enhancements over read-only websites. Stephen Fry (actor, author, and
broadcaster), who writes a technology column in the British Guardian newspaper, describes Web 2.0 as
"an idea in people's heads rather than a reality. It’s actually an idea that the reciprocity between the user and the provider
is what's emphasized. In other words, genuine interactivity, if you like, simply because people can upload as well as
download".
The idea of "Web 2.0" can also relate to a transition of some websites from isolated information silos to
interlinked computing platforms that function like locally-available software in the perception of the user. Web
2.0 also includes a social element where users generate and distribute content, often with freedom to share and
re-use. This can allegedly result in a rise in the economic value of the web as users can do more online.
Tim O'Reilly regards Web 2.0 as business embracing the web as a platform and using its strengths (global
audiences, for example). O'Reilly considers that Eric Schmidt's abridged slogan, don't fight the Internet,
encompasses the essence of Web 2.0 — building applications and services around the unique features of the
Internet, as opposed to building applications and expecting the Internet to suit as a platform (effectively
"fighting the Internet").
In the opening talk of the first Web 2.0 conference, O'Reilly and John Battelle summarized what they saw as the
themes of Web 2.0. They argued that the web had become a platform, with software above the level of a single
device, leveraging the power of the "Long Tail", and with data as a driving force. According to O'Reilly and
Battelle, an architecture of participation where users can contribute website content creates network effects.
Web 2.0 technologies tend to foster innovation in the assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling
together features from distributed, independent developers (a kind of "open source" development and an end to
the software-adoption cycle (the so-called "perpetual beta"). Web 2.0 technology allegedly encourages
lightweight business models enabled by syndication of content and of service and by ease of picking-up by
early adopters.
Tim O'Reilly provided examples of companies or products that embody these principles in his description of his
four levels in the hierarchy of Web 2.0-ness. Level-3 applications, the most "Web 2.0"-oriented, only exist on
the Internet, deriving their effectiveness from the inter-human connections and from the network effects that
Web 2.0 makes possible, and growing in effectiveness in proportion as people make more use of them. O'Reilly
gave as examples eBay, Craigslist, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Skype, dodgeball and AdSense. Level-2 applications
can operate offline but gain advantages from going online. O'Reilly cited Flickr, which benefits from its shared
photo-database and from its community-generated tag database. Level-1 applications operate offline but gain
features online. O'Reilly pointed to Writely (now Google Docs & Spreadsheets) and iTunes (because of its
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music-store portion). Level-0 applications work as well offline as online. O'Reilly gave the examples of
MapQuest, Yahoo! Local and Google Maps (mapping-applications using contributions from users to advantage
can rank as "level 2"). Non-web applications like email, instant-messaging clients and the telephone fall outside
the above hierarchy.
Some authors understand 2.0 as
"all those Internet utilities and services sustained in a data base which can be modified by users whether in its content
(adding, changing or deleting- information or associating metadates with the existing information), or how to display
them, or in content and external aspect simultaneously." (Ribes, 2007)
Characteristics of "Web 2.0"
Web 2.0 websites allow users to do more than just retrieve information. They can build on the interactive
facilities of "Web 1.0" to provide "Network as platform" computing, allowing users to run software-applications
entirely through a browser. Users can own the data on a Web 2.0 site and exercise control over that data.[13][12]
These sites may have an "Architecture of participation" that encourages users to add value to the application as
they use it.[12][2] This stands in contrast to very old traditional websites, the sort which limited visitors to
viewing and whose content only the site's owner could modify. Web 2.0 sites often feature a rich, user-friendly
interface based on Ajax[12][2], Flex or similar rich media. The sites may also have social-networking aspects.
The concept of Web-as-participation-platform captures many of these characteristics. Bart Decrem, a founder
and former CEO of Flock, calls Web 2.0 the "participatory Web" and regards the Web-as-information-source as
Web 1.0.
The impossibility of excluding group-members who don’t contribute to the provision of goods from sharing
profits gives rise to the possibility that rational members will prefer to withhold their contribution of effort and
free-ride on the contribution of others.
Technology overview
The sometimes complex and continually evolving technology infrastructure of Web 2.0 includes serversoftware, content-syndication, messaging-protocols, standards-oriented browsers with plugins and extensions,
and various client-applications. The differing, yet complementary approaches of such elements provide Web 2.0
sites with information-storage, creation, and dissemination challenges and capabilities that go beyond what the
public formerly expected in the environment of the so-called "Web 1.0".
Web 2.0 websites typically include some of the following features/techniques:










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rich Internet application techniques, often Ajax-based
semantically valid XHTML and HTML markup
microformats extending pages with additional semantics
folksonomies (in the form of tags or tagclouds, for example)
Cascading Style Sheets to aid in the separation of presentation and content
REST and/or XML- and/or JSON-based APIs
syndication, aggregation and notification of data in RSS or Atom feeds
mashups, merging content from different sources, client- and server-side
weblog-publishing tools
wiki or forum software, etc., to support user-generated content
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Innovations sometimes associated with "Web 2.0"
Web-based applications and desktops
The richer user-experience afforded by Ajax has prompted the development of websites that mimic personal
computer applications, such as word processing, the spreadsheet, and slide-show presentation. WYSIWYG wiki
sites replicate many features of PC authoring applications. Still other sites perform collaboration and project
management functions. In 2006 Google, Inc. acquired one of the best-known sites of this broad class,
Writely.[16]
Several browser-based "operating systems" have been developed, including EyeOS and YouOS. They
essentially function as application platforms, not as operating systems per se. These services mimic the user
experience of desktop operating-systems, offering features and applications similar to a PC environment. They
have as their distinguishing characteristic the ability to run within any modern browser.
Numerous web-based application services appeared during the dot-com bubble of 1997–2001 and then
vanished, having failed to gain a critical mass of customers. In 2005, WebEx acquired one of the better-known
of these, Intranets.com, for USD45 million.[19]
Rich Internet applications
Recently, rich-Internet application techniques such as Ajax, Adobe Flash, Flex, and Silverlight have evolved
that have the potential to improve the user-experience in browser-based applications. These technologies allow
a web-page to request an update for some part of its content, and to alter that part in the browser, without
needing to refresh the whole page at the same time.
Server-side software
Functionally, Web 2.0 applications build on the existing Web server architecture, but rely much more heavily
on back-end software. Syndication differs only nominally from the methods of publishing using dynamic
content management, but web services typically require much more robust database and workflow support, and
become very similar to the traditional intranet functionality of an application server. Vendor approaches to date
fall either under a universal server approach (which bundles most of the necessary functionality in a single
server platform) or under a web-server plugin approach (which uses standard publishing tools enhanced with
API interfaces and other tools).
Client-side software
The extra functionality provided by Web 2.0 depends on the ability of users to work with the data stored on
servers. This can come about through forms in an HTML page, through a scripting language such as Javascript /
Ajax, or through Flash, Silverlight or Java Applets. These methods all make use of the client computer to
reduce server workloads and to increase the responsiveness of the application.
XML and RSS
Advocates of "Web 2.0" may regard syndication of site content as a Web 2.0 feature, involving as it does
standardized protocols, which permit end-users to make use of a site's data in another context (such as another
website, a browser plugin, or a separate desktop application). Protocols which permit syndication include RSS
(Really Simple Syndication — also known as "web syndication"), RDF (as in RSS 1.1), and Atom, all of them
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XML-based formats. Observers have started to refer to these technologies as "Web feed" as the usability of
Web 2.0 evolves and the more user-friendly Feeds icon supplants the RSS icon.
Specialized protocols
Specialized protocols such as FOAF and XFN (both for social networking) extend the functionality of sites or
permit end-users to interact without centralized websites.
Web APIs
Machine-based interaction, a common feature of Web 2.0 sites, uses two main approaches to Web APIs, which
allow web-based access to data and functions: REST and SOAP.
1.
2.
REST (Representational State Transfer) Web APIs use HTTP alone to interact, with
XML or JSON payloads;
SOAP involves POSTing more elaborate XML messages and requests to a server that
may contain quite complex, but pre-defined, instructions for the server to follow.
Often servers use proprietary APIs, but standard APIs (for example, for posting to a blog or notifying a blog
update) have also come into wide use. Most communications through APIs involve XML (eXtensible Markup
Language) or JSON payloads.
See also Web Services Description Language (WSDL) (the standard way of publishing a SOAP API) and this
list of Web Service specifications.
Economics and "Web 2.0"
The analysis of the economic implications of "Web 2.0" applications and loosely-associated technologies such
as wikis, blogs, social-networking, open-source, open-content, file-sharing, peer-production, etc. has also
gained scientific attention. This area of research investigates the implications Web 2.0 has for an economy and
the principles underlying the economy of Web 2.0.
Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams argue in their book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes
Everything (2006) that the economy of "the new web" depends on mass collaboration. Tapscott and Williams
regard it as important for new media companies to find ways of how to make profit with the help of Web 2.0.
The prospective Internet-based economy that they term "Wikinomics" would depend on the principles of
openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally. They identify seven Web 2.0 business-models (peer pioneers,
ideagoras, prosumers, new Alexandrians, platforms for participation, global plantfloor, wiki workplace).
Organizations could make use of these principles and models in order to prosper with the help of Web 2.0-like
applications: “Companies can design and assemble products with their customers, and in some cases customers
can do the majority of the value creation”. “In each instance the traditionally passive buyers of editorial and
advertising take active, participatory roles in value creation.“ Tapscott and Williams suggest business strategies
as “models where masses of consumers, employees, suppliers, business partners, and even competitors cocreate
value in the absence of direct managerial control”.
Tapscott and Williams see the outcome as an economic democracy.
Some other views in the scientific debate agree with Tapscott and Williams that value-creation increasingly
depends on harnessing open source/content, networking, sharing, and peering, but disagree that this will result
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in an economic democracy, predicting a subtle form and deepening of exploitation, in which Internet-based
global outsourcing reduces labour-costs. In such a view, the economic implications of a new web might include
on the one hand the emergence of new business-models based on global outsourcing, whereas on the other hand
non-commercial online platforms could undermine profit-making and anticipate a co-operative economy. For
example, Tiziana Terranova speaks of "free labor" (performed without payment) in the case where prosumers
produce surplus value in the circulation-sphere of the cultural industries [23]
Criticism
Given the lack of set standards as to what "Web 2.0" actually means, implies, or requires, the term can mean
radically different things to different people.
The argument exists that "Web 2.0" does not represent a new version of the World Wide Web at all, but merely
continues to use so-called "Web 1.0" technologies and concepts. Note that techniques such as Ajax do not
replace underlying protocols like HTTP, but add an additional layer of abstraction on top of them. Many of the
ideas of Web 2.0 had already featured in implementations on networked systems well before the term "Web
2.0" emerged. Amazon.com, for instance, has allowed users to write reviews and consumer guides since its
launch in 1995, in a form of self-publishing. Amazon also opened its API to outside developers in 2002.[24]
Previous developments also came from research in computer-supported collaborative learning and computersupported cooperative work and from established products like Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino.
In a podcast interview Tim Berners-Lee described the term "Web 2.0" as a "piece of jargon": "nobody really
knows what it means"; and went on to say "if Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people.
But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along."
Conversely, when someone proclaims a website "Web 2.0" for the use of some trivial feature (such as blogs or
gradient-boxes) observers may generally consider it more an attempt at promotion than an actual endorsement
of the ideas behind Web 2.0. "Web 2.0" in such circumstances has sometimes sunk simply to the status of a
marketing buzzword, which can mean whatever a salesperson wants it to mean, with little connection to most of
the worthy but (currently) unrelated ideas originally brought together under the "Web 2.0" banner.
Other criticism has included the term "a second bubble," (referring to the Dot-com bubble of circa 1995–2001),
suggesting that too many Web 2.0 companies attempt to develop the same product with a lack of business
models. The Economist has written of "Bubble 2.0."
Venture capitalist Josh Kopelman noted that Web 2.0 excited only 53,651 people (the number of subscribers to
TechCrunch, a Weblog covering Web 2.0 matters), too few users to make them an economically-viable target
for consumer applications.
Trademark
In November 2004, CMP Media applied to the USPTO for a service mark on the use of the term "WEB 2.0" for
live events. On the basis of this application, CMP Media sent a cease-and-desist demand to the Irish non-profit
organization IT@Cork on May 24, 2006, but retracted it two days later.[29] The "WEB 2.0" service mark
registration passed final PTO Examining Attorney review on May 10, 2006, but as of June 12, 2006 the PTO
had not published the mark for opposition. The European Union application (application number 004972212,
which would confer unambiguous status in Ireland) remains currently pending after its filing on March 23,
2006.
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RSS
RSS (formally "RDF Site Summary", known colloquially as "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of Web
feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An
RSS document, which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel", contains either a summary of content from
an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites
in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.
RSS content can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader" or an "aggregator". The user
subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that
initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content,
downloading any updates that it finds.
The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats:



Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats.
History
The RSS formats were preceded by several attempts at syndication that did not achieve widespread popularity.
The basic idea of restructuring information about web sites goes back to as early as 1995, when Ramanathan V.
Guha and others in Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group developed the Meta Content Framework
(MCF). For a more detailed discussion of these early developments, see the history of web syndication
technology.
RDF Site Summary, the first version of RSS, was created by Guha at Netscape in March 1999 for use on the
My.Netscape.Com portal. This version became known as RSS 0.9. In July 1999, Dan Libby of Netscape
produced a new version, RSS 0.91, that simplified the format by removing RDF elements and incorporating
elements from Dave Winer's scriptingNews syndication format. Libby also renamed RSS to Rich Site Summary
and outlined further development of the format in a "futures document".
This would be Netscape's last participation in RSS development for eight years. As RSS was being embraced by
web publishers who wanted their feeds to be used on My.Netscape.Com and other early RSS portals, Netscape
dropped RSS support from My.Netscape.Com in April 2001 during new owner AOL's restructuring of the
company, also removing documentation and tools that supported the format.
Two entities emerged to fill the void, neither with Netscape's help or approval: The RSS-DEV Working Group
and Winer, whose UserLand Software had published some of the first publishing tools outside of Netscape that
could read and write RSS.
Winer published a modified version of the RSS 0.91 specification on the UserLand web site, covering how it
was being used in his company's products, and claimed copyright to the document. A few months later,
UserLand filed a U.S. trademark registration for RSS, but failed to respond to a USPTO trademark examiner's
request and the request was rejected in December 2001.
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The RSS-DEV Working Group, a project whose members included Guha and representatives of O'Reilly Media
and Moreover, produced RSS 1.0 in December 2000.[10] This new version, which reclaimed the name RDF Site
Summary from RSS 0.9, reintroduced support for RDF and added XML namespaces support, adopting elements
from standard metadata vocabularies such as Dublin Core.
In December 2000, Winer released RSS 0.92 a minor set of changes aside from the introduction of the enclosure
element, which permitted audio files to be carried in RSS feeds and helped spark podcasting. He also released
drafts of RSS 0.93 and RSS 0.94 that were subsequently withdrawn.
In September 2002, Winer released a major new version of the format, RSS 2.0, that redubbed its initials Really
Simple Syndication. RSS 2.0 removed the type attribute added in the RSS 0.94 draft and added support for
namespaces.
Because neither Winer nor the RSS-DEV Working Group had Netscape's involvement, they could not make an
official claim on the RSS name or format. This has fueled ongoing controversy in the syndication development
community as to which entity was the proper publisher of RSS.
One product of that contentious debate was the creation of a rival syndication format, Atom, that began in June
2003. The Atom syndication format, whose creation was in part motivated by a desire to get a clean start free of
the issues surrounding RSS, has been adopted as an IETF standard.
In July 2003, Winer and UserLand Software assigned the copyright of the RSS 2.0 specification to Harvard's
Berkman Center for the Internet & Society, where he had just begun a term as a visiting fellow. At the same
time, Winer launched the RSS Advisory Board with Brent Simmons and Jon Udell, a group whose purpose was
to maintain and publish the specification and answer questions about the format.
In December 2005, the Microsoft Internet Explorer team[15] and Outlook team announced on their blogs that
they were adopting the feed icon first used in the Mozilla Firefox browser . A few months later, Opera Software
followed suit. This effectively made the orange square with white radio waves the industry standard for RSS
and Atom feeds, replacing the large variety of icons and text that had been used previously to identify
syndication data.
In January 2006, RSS Advisory Board chairman Rogers Cadenhead announced that eight new members had
joined the group, continuing the development of the RSS format and resolving ambiguities in the RSS 2.0
specification. Netscape developer Chris Finke joined the board in March 2007, the company's first involvement
in RSS since the publication of RSS 0.91. In June 2007, the board revised its version of the specification to
confirm that namespaces may extend core elements with namespace attributes, as Microsoft has done in Internet
Explorer 7. In its view, a difference of interpretation left publishers unsure of whether this was permitted or
forbidden.
Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed
text. The text is conveyed via computers connected over a network such as the Internet.
Overview
Instant messaging offers real-time communication and allows easy collaboration, which might be considered
more akin to genuine conversation than email's "letter" format. In contrast to e-mail, the parties know whether
the peer is available. Most systems allow the user to set an online status or away message so peers are notified
when the user is available, busy, or away from the computer. On the other hand, people are not forced to reply
immediately to incoming messages. For this reason, some people consider communication via instant
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messaging to be less intrusive than communication via phone. However, some systems allow the sending of
messages to people not currently logged on (offline messages), thus removing much of the difference between
IM and email.
Instant messaging allows instantaneous communication between a number of parties simultaneously, by
transmitting information quickly and efficiently, featuring immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. In
certain cases IM involves additional features, which make it even more popular, i.e. to see the other party, e.g.
by using web-cams, or to talk directly for free over the internet.
It is possible to save a conversation for later reference. Instant messages are typically logged in a local message
history which closes the gap to the persistent nature of e-mails and facilitates quick exchange of information
like URLs or document snippets (which can be unwieldy when communicated via telephone).
History
In early instant messaging programs each character appeared when it was typed. The UNIX "talk" command
shown in these screenshots was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Instant messaging actually predates the internet, first appearing on multi-user operating systems like CTSS and
Multics[1] in the mid-1960s. Initially, many of these systems, such as CTSS'.SAVED, were used as notification
systems for services like printing, but quickly were used to facilitate communication with other users logged in
to the same machine. As networks developed, the protocols spread with the networks. Some of these used a
peer-to-peer protocol (eg talk, ntalk and ytalk), while others required peers to connect to a server (see talker and
IRC)
In the last half of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the Quantum Link online service for Commodore 64
computers offered user-to-user messages between currently connected customers which they called "On-Line
Messages" (or OLM for short). Quantum Link's better known later incarnation, America Online, offers a similar
product under the name "AOL Instant Messages" (AIM). While the Quantum Link service ran on a Commodore
64, using only the Commodore's PETSCII text-graphics, the screen was visually divided up into sections and
OLMs would appear as a yellow bar saying "Message From:" and the name of the sender along with the
message across the top of whatever the user was already doing, and presented a list of options for responding.
As such, it could be considered a sort of GUI, albeit much more primitive than the later Unix, Windows and
Macintosh based GUI IM programs. OLMs were what Q-Link called "Plus Services" meaning they charged an
extra per-minute fee on top of the monthly Q-Link access costs.
Modern, Internet-wide, GUI-based messaging clients, as they are known today, began to take off in the mid
1990s with ICQ (1996) being the first, followed by AOL Instant Messenger (AOL Instant Messenger, 1997).
AOL later acquired Mirabilis, the creators of ICQ. A few years later ICQ (by now owned by AOL) was
awarded two patents for instant messaging by the U.S. patent office. Meanwhile, other companies developed
their own applications (Excite, MSN, Ubique, and Yahoo), each with its own proprietary protocol and client;
users therefore had to run multiple client applications if they wished to use more than one of these networks. In
1998 IBM released IBM Lotus Sametime, a product based on technology acquired when IBM bought Haifabased Ubique and Lexington-based Databeam.
In 2000, an open source application and open standards-based protocol called Jabber was launched. Jabber
servers could act as gateways to other IM protocols, reducing the need to run multiple clients. Modern multiprotocol clients such as Pidgin, Trillian, Adium and Miranda can use any of the popular IM protocols without
the need for a server gateway. IBM Lotus Sametime's November 2007 release added server-gateway support for
XMPP.
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Recently, many instant messaging services have begun to offer video conferencing features, Voice Over IP
(VoIP) and web conferencing services. Web conferencing services integrate both video conferencing and instant
messaging capabilities. Some newer instant messaging companies are offering desktop sharing, IP radio, and
IPTV to the voice and video features.
The term "instant messenger" is a service mark of Time Warner and may not be used in software not affiliated
with AOL in the United States. For this reason, the instant messaging client formerly known as Gaim or gaim
announced in April 2007 that they would be renamed "Pidgin".
Cooperation
There have been several attempts to create a unified standard for instant messaging: IETF's SIP (Session
Initiation Protocol) and SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions), APEX
(Application Exchange), Prim (Presence and Instant Messaging Protocol), the open XML-based XMPP
(Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), more commonly known as Jabber and OMA's (Open Mobile
Alliance) IMPS (Instant Messaging and Presence Service) created specifically for mobile devices.
Most attempts at creating a unified standard for the major IM providers (AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft) have
failed and each continues to use its own proprietary protocol.
However, while discussions at IETF were stalled, Reuters head of collaboration services, David Gurle (the
founder of Microsoft's Real Time Communication and Collaboration business), surprised everybody by signing
the first inter-service provider connectivity agreement on September 2003. This historic agreement enabled
AIM, ICQ and MSN Messenger users to talk with Reuters Messaging counterparts and vice-versa against an
access fee. Following this breakthrough agreement between networks Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL came to a
deal where Microsoft's Live Communication Server 2005 (which is interestingly also used by Reuters for its
Reuters Messaging service) users would also have the possibility to talk to public instant messaging users. This
deal settled once for all the protocol for interconnectivity in the market as SIP/SIMPLE and established a
connectivity fee for accessing public instant messaging clouds. Separately, on October 13, 2005 Microsoft and
Yahoo! announced that by (the Northern Hemisphere) summer of 2006 they would interoperate using
SIP/SIMPLE which is followed on December 2005 by the AOL and Google strategic partnership deal where
Google Talk users would be able to talk with AIM and ICQ users provided they have an identity at AOL.
There are two ways to combine the many disparate protocols:
1.
2.
One way is to combine the many disparate protocols inside the IM client application.
The other way is to combine the many disparate protocols inside the IM server
application. This approach moves the task of communicating to the other services to the
server. Clients need not know or care about other IM protocols. For example, LCS 2005
Public IM Connectivity. This approach is popular in Jabber/XMPP servers however the
so-called transport projects suffer the same reverse engineering difficulties as any other
project involved with closed protocols or formats.
Some approaches, such as that adopted by the Sonork enterprise IM software or the Jabber/XMPP network or
Winpopup LAN Messenger, allow organizations to create their own private instant messaging network by
enabling them to limit access to the server (often with the IM network entirely behind their firewall) and
administer user permissions. Other corporate messaging systems allow registered users to also connect from
outside the corporation LAN, by using a secure firewall-friendly HTTPS based protocol. Typically, a dedicated
corporate IM server has several advantages such as pre-populated contact lists, integrated authentication, and
better security and privacy.
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Some networks have made changes to prevent them from being utilized by such multi-network IM clients. For
example, Trillian had to release several revisions and patches to allow its users to access the MSN, AOL, and
Yahoo! networks, after changes were made to these networks. The major IM providers typically cite the need
for formal agreements as well as security concerns as reasons for making these changes.
Mobile Instant Messaging
Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) is a presence enabled messaging service that aims to transpose the desktop
messaging experience to the usage scenario of being on the move. While several of the core ideas of the desktop
experience on one hand apply to a connected mobile device, others do not: Users usually only look at their
phone's screen — presence status changes might occur under different circumstances as happens at the desktop,
and several functional limits exist based on the fact that the vast majority of mobile communication devices are
chosen by their users to fit into the palm of their hand.
Some of the form factor and mobility related differences need to be taken into account in order to create a really
adequate, powerful and yet convenient mobile experience: radio bandwidth, memory size, availability of media
formats, keypad based input, screen output, CPU performance and battery power are core issues that desktop
device users and even nomadic users with connected notebooks are usually not exposed to.
Several formerly untackled issues have been identified and addressed within IMPS, which was developed as
part of an early mobile telephone industry initiative to kick off a broader usage of mobile instant messaging.
The Open Mobile Alliance has taken over this standard, formerly called Wireless Village, as IMPS V1.0 in
November 2002. Since then this standards has been further developed to IMPS V1.3, the latest candidate for
release, and is expected to be released before the end of 2006.
There are downloadable mobile applications offered by different independent developers that allow users to
chat within public (MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ) and corporate (IBM Lotus Sametime, LCS,
Reuters) IM services from mobile devices.
Among the advantages of using such IM clients over SMS are: IM clients use data instead of SMS text
messages; IM-like chat mode, faster and quicker messaging. Some IM software allows group communication.
Several large scale mobile telephone industry companies are planning to jointly deliver a ubiquitous,
interoperable presence enabled messaging service, built according to interoperability recommendations
developed in the GSM Association. Considering these organisations are jointly representing approximately 1.5
billion active Short Text Messaging (SMS) users, it remains to be seen if such an initiative may also help to
drive the different industry factions to agree on a truly interoperable approach at least for Mobile Instant
Messaging sometime in the not too far future.
In the meantime, other developments have proposed usage of downloadable applications with the intention to
create their own approach to IM that runs on most mobile phones worldwide. Essentially, several of these
clients are Java applications are instantly downloaded and then connected to back-end servers through
GPRS/3G Internet Channels. Some of the implementations can connect to other IM services.
Friend-to-friend networks
Instant Messaging may be done in a Friend-to-friend network, in which each node connects to the friends on the
friendslist. This allows for communication with friends of friends and for the building of chatrooms for instant
messages with all friends on that network.
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Emotions are often expressed in shorthand. For example; lol. But a movement is currently underway to be more
accurate with the emotional expression. Real time reactions such as (chortle) (snort) (guhfaw) or (eye-roll) are
rapidly taking the place of acronyms.
Business application
Instant messaging has proven to be similar to personal computers, e-mail, and the WWW, in that its adoption
for use as a business communications medium was driven primarily by individual employees using consumer
software at work, rather than by formal mandate or provisioning by corporate information technology
departments. Tens of millions of the consumer IM accounts in use are being used for business purposes by
employees of companies and other organizations.
In response to the demand for business-grade IM and the need to ensure security and legal compliance, a new
type of instant messaging, called "Enterprise Instant Messaging" ("EIM") was created when Lotus Software
launched IBM Lotus Sametime in 1998. Microsoft followed suit shortly thereafter with Microsoft Exchange
Instant Messaging, later created a new platform called Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, and
released Office Communications Server 2007 in October 2007. Both IBM Lotus and Microsoft have introduced
federation between their EIM systems and some of the public IM networks so that employees may use a single
interface to both their internal EIM system and their contacts on AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!. Current leading EIM
platforms include IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Jabber XCP. In
addition, industry-focused EIM platforms such as IMtrader from Pivot Incorporated, Reuters Messaging, and
Bloomberg Messaging provide enhanced IM capabilities to financial services companies.
The adoption of IM across corporate networks outside of the control of IT organizations creates risks and
liabilities for companies who do not effectively manage and support IM use. Companies implement specialized
IM archiving and security products and services like those from Secure Computing, Akonix, Surfcontrol, and
ScanSafe to mitigate these risks and provide safe, secure, productive instant messaging capabilities to their
employees.
Risks and liabilities
Although instant messaging delivers many benefits, it also carries with it certain risks and liabilities,
particularly when used in workplaces. Among these risks and liabilities are:




Security risks (e.g. IM used to infect computers with spyware, viruses, trojans, worms)
Compliance risks
Inappropriate use
Intellectual property leakage
Crackers' (malicious "hacker" or black hat hacker) use of instant messaging networks to deliver malicious code
has grown consistently from 2004 to the present, with the number of discrete attacks listed by the IM Security
Center[6] having grown 15% from 347 attacks in 2005 to 406 in 2006. Hackers use two methods of delivering
malicious code through IM: delivery of virus, trojan, or spyware within an infected file, and the use of "socially
engineered" text with a web address that entices the recipient to click on a URL that connects him or her to a
website that then downloads malicious code. Viruses, worms, and trojans typically propagate by sending
themselves rapidly through the infected user's buddy list. An effective attack using a "poison URL" may reach
tens of thousands of people in minutes when each person's buddy list receives messages appearing to be from a
trusted friend. The recipients click on the web address, and the entire cycle starts again. Infections may range
from nuisance to criminal, and are becoming more sophisticated each year.
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In addition to the malicious code threat, the use of instant messaging at work also creates a risk of noncompliance to laws and regulations governing the use of electronic communications in businesses. In the United
States alone there are over 10,000 laws and regulations related to electronic messaging and records retention.[7]
The more well-known of these include the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA, and SEC 17a-3. Recent changes to
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, effective December 1, 2006, create a new category for electronic records
which may be requested during discovery (law) in legal proceedings. Most countries around the world also
regulate the use of electronic messaging and electronic records retention in similar fashion to the United States.
The most common regulations related to IM at work involve the need to produce archived business
communications to satisfy government or judicial requests under law. Many instant messaging communications
fall into the category of business communications that must be archived and retrievable.
Organizations of all types must protect themselves from the liability of their employees' inappropriate use of
IM. The informal, immediate, and ostensibly anonymous nature of instant messaging makes it a candidate for
abuse in the workplace. The topic of inappropriate IM use became front page news in October 2006 when
Congressman Mark Foley resigned his seat after admitting sending offensive instant messages of a sexual
nature to underage former House pages from his Congressional office PC. The Mark Foley Scandal led to media
coverage and mainstream newspaper articles warning of the risks of inappropriate IM use in workplaces. In
most countries, corporations have a legal responsibility to ensure harassment-free work environment for
employees. The use of corporate-owned computers, networks, and software to harass an individual or spread
inappropriate jokes or language creates a liability for not only the offender but also the employer. A survey by
IM archiving and security provider Akonix Systems, Inc. in March 2007 showed that 31% of respondents had
been harassed over IM at work.[8] Companies now include instant messaging as an integral component of their
policies on appropriate use of the World Wide Web, email, and other corporate assets.
Security and archiving
In the early 2000s, a new class of IT security provider emerged to provide remedies for the risks and liabilities
faced by corporations who chose to use IM for business communications. The IM security providers created
new products to be installed in corporate networks for the purpose of archiving, content-scanning, and securityscanning IM traffic moving in and out of the corporation. Similar to the e-mail filtering vendors, the IM security
providers focus on the risks and liabilities described above.
With rapid adoption of IM in the workplace, demand for IM security products began to grow in the mid-2000s.
By 2007, the preferred platform for the purchase of security software had become the "appliance", according to
IDC, who estimate that by 2008, 80% of network security products will be delivered via an appliance.
User base
Note that many of the numbers listed in this section are not directly comparable, and some are speculative.
Some instant messaging systems are distributed among many different instances and thus difficult to measure in
total (e.g. Jabber). While some numbers are given by the owners of a complete instant messaging system, others
are provided by commercial vendors of a part of a distributed system. Some companies may be motivated to
inflate their numbers in order to increase advertisement earnings or to attract partners, clients, or customers.
Importantly, some numbers are reported as the number of "active" users (without a shared standard of that
activity), others indicate total user accounts, while others indicate only the users logged in during an instance of
peak usage.
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Service
User count
Date/source
53 million active
September 2006
>100 million total
January 2006
AIM
27.2 million active September 2006
WLM
155 million total
April 2005
20 million peak
online (majority in 3 June 2006
China)
QQ
221 million
"active" (majority
in China)
3 June 2006
11 million peak
online
January 2008
>220 million total
October 2007
4 million active
2002
5 million total in
Europe alone
2004
Skype
ICQ
Paltalk
3.3 million unique
August 2006
visitors per month
Mail.ru Agent
1 million active
(daily)
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PSYC
1 million active
February 2007. Total count cannot be accurately estimated due to the
(daily) (majority in
decentralized nature of the protocol.
Brazil)
40-50 million total January 2007, based on calculations of Jabber Inc
90 million total
Based on calculations of Process-One: Process-One uses ejabberd as Jabber
server software. If it is assumed that ejabberd has a 40% market share
amongst public and private open source server deployments, there are 50
million users using open source servers. With Jabber Inc's numbers, this
adds up to the 90 million number stated here.
eBuddy
35 million total
October 2006, including 4 million mobile users
Yahoo!
Messenger
22 million total
September 2006
IBM Lotus
Sametime
17 million total
(private, in
enterprises)
November 2007
Xfire
6.1 million total
January 2007
Gadu-Gadu
5.6 million total
June 2006
MXit
4.8 million total
10 August 2007. Note that these users are part of the Jabber user base as
(>200,000 outside
MXit federates with the Jabber network.
of South Africa)
Meebo
1 million total
October 2006
IMVU
1 million total
June 2007
VZOchat
>200,000
October 2007
Jabber
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MySpaceIM
unknown
Greynet
Within the context of corporate and organizational networks, a greynet is an elusive networked computer
application that is downloaded and installed on end user systems without express permission from network
administrators and often without awareness or cognition that it is deeply embedded in the organization’s
network fabric. These applications may be of some marginal use to the user, but inevitably consume system and
network resources. In addition, greynet applications often open the door for end use systems to become
compromised by additional applications, security risks and malware.
Examples







Public instant messaging (AIM, MSN, Yahoo!)
Web conferencing (webcam, Voice Over IP (VoIP) Telephony
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing clients
Data Processing SETI@Home
Adware “utilities”
Commercial spyware
Keystroke logging
The Dynamics of Greynet Growth
As computer workstations have become connected to the Internet, a variety of programs have proliferated that
offer the ability to extend communications, gather and deliver information, and to serve the needs of marketing
concerns. Among the first to emerge were instant messaging clients such as ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and
MSN Messenger. Developments in technology have added video capability through webcam units, all of which
have worked together to take advantage of available bandwidth in single, small network, and corporate
environments.
The growth of greynets takes advantage of software and hardware developments. Informal networks are now
appearing that provide a variety of streaming media and content that is supplied or modified by end users. An
emerging category is "podcasting", in which users generate content for widespread download on portable MP3
players.
Problems with Greynet Programs
The problem with greynet programs is fourfold. First, greynet programs create network security risks by
causing broad vectors for malware dissemination. For example, hackers' attacks that use IM and P2P networks
have grown consistently since 2004, with The IM Security Center charting a 15% increase in attacks from 2005
to 2006, and a cumulative 710% growth in the number of viruses, worms, trojans, and spyware programs from
April 2005 to April 2007. Second, they create privacy issues for the network by opening large holes for
information leakage. Third, greynet programs create compliance issues for a computer network by creating an
invisible parallel communications network. Fourth, they create issues on local machines through the
consumption of local system resources and possible operating system or program stability concerns. All of these
things increase network and IT administration time and costs.
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Added to this in the corporate work environment is the loss of meaningful production time due to non-work
related distractions through these greynet applications. Individual network environment policies may vary from
non-existent to a full lockdown of end user system privileges. See the "Risks and Liabilities" section of Instant
Messaging for a more detailed overview of threats, risks, and solutions to those problems for the most prevalent
of the greynet programs, public IM.
Dealing with the security aspects of greynets has led to the emergence of specific administrative software
packages that monitor and control traffic, as well as the enhancement of security suites and adware clients.
Security and Monitoring
Among the first and most prevalent of the specific administrative software packages were products that secure
networks against threats borne by IM and P2P networks. These products were first introduced in 2002, and now
protect 10% to 15% of U.S. corporations. Protection against these types of risks to corporate networks is still in
early stages of adoption however, as evidenced by the fact that 73% of companies have security or "hygiene" in
place for their email networks, while only 11% have hygiene in place for instant messaging and P2P. Products
are available for security, content filtering, and archiving the use of these networks from companies such as
Akonix, CSC, FaceTime, Global Relay, and Scansafe.
References
According to Facetime:
MySpace and other social networking sites will continue to be the most popular target for hackers, phishers and
spammers in 2008 as long as they continue to offer the same level of profile customization to their users.
The danger to corporate networks lies within the growing tendency for workers to blur their work and professional lives,
often surfing these social networking sites on their work PCs and so exposing the organization to information loss,
inbound malware threats and compliance risks.
Hackers often use social engineering – manipulation with contextual language to trick victims into clicking on
links that launch infected files - to propagate malware over IM networks as well as within social networking
sites. The files may take the form of multimedia (jpegs or movie files) or traditional executable files. This
ranges from an IM appearing to be from a trusted buddy to fake MySpace comments, messages or friend
requests.
For example, in September 2007 a virus propagated through MSN Messenger delivering a .zip file full of
malicious code. Victims received messages appearing to be from those on their buddy lists saying "Do you
remember this girl? I can't believe she took this pic… do you know her?"
In November 2007, a Skype Worm propagated via a message stating "help me find this girl," accompanied by
an executable file named "photo," which deposited a large number of infected files on the victim's computer.
Social Networking Security Concerns
According to FaceTime Security Labs, the increasing threat over this past year has been the boldness of a
growing underclass of glory hackers on social networking sites such as MySpace. The danger to corporate
networks lies within the growing tendency for workers to blur their work and personal lives, often surfing these
social networking sites on their work PCs and so exposing the organization to information loss, inbound
malware threats and compliance risks.
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In November 2007, The Bandjammer Trojan ran rampant through MySpace music profiles. Once a band's
MySpace page had been hacked, an invisible background image was created that linked to a dangerous site.
Visitors to the hacked profile had their browsers hijacked, with the Trojan installing fake toolbars warning of a
possible spyware infection, which included a handy link to click for a free scan which in turn took victims
directly to various porn sites.
In the height of the holiday season, many MySpace users received a friend request from a "fake Tom," with the
promise of free ring tones. The messages appeared to be from Tom Anderson, president and co-founder of
MySpace, who users meet as their first friend when signing up for a MySpace profile. MySpace quickly deleted
the fake profiles, but hackers quickly regrouped with new fake profiles sporting Tom's famous profile photo
associated with random first names.
For knowledge workers, it is as common to do work at home as it is to conduct personal tasks while at work.
According to the recent survey Greynets in the Enterprise: Third Annual Survey of Greynet Trends, Attitudes
and Impact, commissioned by FaceTime and conducted by NewDiligence, 85 percent of end users use their
work PCs for personal purposes. Users describe looking at interesting sites on the Web (74 percent), banking
(60 percent) and shopping (60 percent) as their top online personal activities at work, outside of sending email.
"Many hacks and scams are creeping into the mainstream areas of MySpace and other social networking sites,
as the perpetrators become bolder and more aggressive," reports FaceTime's Director of Malware Research
Chris Boyd. "The most horrendous content imaginable is now easily stumbled upon via simple redirects and
blog hijacks. The myth that you have to ‘go looking for it' has never seemed further from the truth."
Boyd saw an aggressive shift in the hacker behavior over the past year, with a growing underclass of young
hackers who don't care about revealing their real identity. "Children as young as 12 years old are sharing
professional phishing kits and trading stolen credit card details," said Boyd.
"MySpace and other social networking sites will continue to be the most popular target for hackers, phishers
and spammers in 2008 as long as they continue to offer the same level of profile customization to their users,"
continued Boyd. "It's never a good idea to promote functionality over security, but there's no way MySpace can
suddenly change how their site works, causing their users to lose interest in the very things that brought them
there in the first place."
2007 research findings and hacker busts from Boyd and other researchers are detailed on the FaceTime Security
Labs blog at http://www.blog.spywareguide.com.
Growing Concern over Greynets
According to the GreynetsGuide.com Web site managed by FaceTime Security Labs, there are more than 600
greynets currently in use worldwide. The list includes commonly downloaded applications such as IM and Web
conferencing, along with newer plug in-type applications like search engine tool bars and online social
networking sites, multimedia distribution portals, IPTV, and Web 2.0 applications. FaceTime expects this
number to grow to more than 1,000 by the end of 2008.
The concern over greynets in the enterprise stems from their inherent characteristics: these real-time
applications are evasive and always on, and many are structured with a liberal allowance for user customization.
These attractive aspects of greynets are the same characteristics that classify them as high security and
compliance risks. The nature of these greynets compounds the risks of inbound malware, outbound information
leakage and require continual revisiting of network usage and compliance policies.
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The uncontrolled use of greynets on enterprise networks has grown significantly over the past year. Most
organizations cite between eight and ten greynets operating in their networks, according to the Greynets in the
Enterprise survey. This high level of employee usage has increased from 20 percent in 2005 to 41 percent in
2006 to 56 percent in 2007. Employees continue to believe they have the right to download any application they
need onto their work PCs (36 percent).
"While many greynet applications have legitimate business uses, there are also many that do not," said Cabri.
"Most organizations are not willing to accept the security and compliance exposure resulting from the
uncontrolled use of these applications. IT managers need to ensure the safe use of approved applications and
effectively detect and block the rogue use of unapproved applications."
BELMONT, CALIF. - January 8, 2008 - FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions that
control greynets and manage unified communications in the enterprise, today announced its initial findings of
2007 malware trends affecting today's enterprise networks through instant messaging (IM), P2P file sharing and
chat applications. During 2007 there were 1,088 incidents reported over all IM, P2P, and chat vectors.
Text messaging, or texting is the common term for the sending of "short" (160 characters or fewer) text
messages from mobile phones using the Short Message Service (SMS). It is available on most digital mobile
phones and some personal digital assistants with on-board wireless telecommunications. The individual
messages which are sent are called text messages, or in the more colloquial text speak texts.
SMS gateways exist to connect mobile SMS services with instant message (IM) services, the world wide web,
desktop computers, and even landline telephones (through speech synthesis). Devices which can connect to
mobile phones and PDAs through protocols such as Bluetooth can also sometimes use that link to send SMS
messages over the wireless network. SMS arose as part of the widely deployed GSM protocol, but is now also
available with non-GSM systems.
The most common application of the service is person-to-person messaging, but text messages are also often
used to interact with automated systems, such as ordering products and services for mobile phones, or
participating in contests. There are some services available on the Internet that allow users to send text
messages free of direct charge to the sender, although users of all North American networks have to pay to
receive any SMS text message(T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon).
Text Messaging Gateway Providers
SMS gateway providers facilitate the SMS traffic between businesses and mobile subscribers, being mainly
responsible for carrying mission-critical messages, SMS for enterprises, content delivery and entertainment
services involving SMS, e.g. TV voting. Considering SMS messaging performance and cost, as well as the level
of text messaging services, SMS gateway providers can be classified as aggregators or SS7 providers.
The aggregator model is based on multiple agreements with mobile carriers to exchange 2-way SMS traffic into
and out of the operator’s SMS platform (Short Message Service Centre – SMS-C), also known as local
termination model. Aggregators lack direct access into the SS7 protocol, which is the protocol where the SMS
messages are exchanged. These providers have no visibility and control over the message delivery, being unable
to offer delivery guarantees. SMS messages are delivered in the operator’s SMS-C, but not the subscriber’s
handset.
Another type of SMS gateway provider is based on SS7 connectivity to route SMS messages, also known as
international termination model. The advantage of this model is the ability to route data directly through SS7,
which gives the provider total control and visibility of the complete path during the SMS routing. This means
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SMS messages can be sent directly to and from recipients without having to go through the SMS-Centres of
other mobile operators. Therefore, it’s possible to avoid delays and message losses, offering full delivery
guarantees of messages and optimised routing. This model is particularly efficient when used in mission-critical
messaging and SMS used in corporate communications.
The University of Duisburg-Essen, in partnership with mobile messaging provider Tyntec, have developed the
study for SMS messaging to enable the detailed monitoring of SMS transmissions to ensure a greater degree of
reliability and a higher average speed of delivery.[1] The new parameters can be used by mobile network
operators, third party SMS gateways and mobile network infrastructure software vendors to monitor the
transmission of SMS messages and to detect network transmission problems quickly and accurately.
History
Many companies have claimed to have sent the very first text message but according to a former employee of
NASA Edwaed Lantz, the first was sent via one simple 1989 Motorola beeper in 1989 by Raina Fortini from
NYC to Melbourne Beach Florida using upside down numbers that could be read as words and sounds. The first
commercial SMS message was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on 3 December
1992, from Neil Papworth of Sema Group (using a personal computer) to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone (using an
Orbitel 901 handset). The text of the message was "Merry Christmas". The first SMS typed on a GSM phone is
claimed to have been sent by Riku Pihkonen, an engineer student at Nokia, in 1993.
Initial growth of text messaging was slow, with customers in 1995 sending on average only 0.4 messages per
GSM customer per month. One factor in the slow takeup of SMS was that operators were slow to set up
charging systems, especially for prepaid subscribers, and eliminate billing fraud which was possible by
changing SMSC settings on individual handsets to use the SMSCs of other operators. Over time, this issue was
eliminated by switch-billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSCs to allow
blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through it. By the end of 2000, the average number of
messages per user reached 35.
The first web text messaging portal was invented in another English town called Doncaster by e2sms. Beta
tested in 1996 and launched in 1997/1998 it offer two sms from mobile phones to email or via a web portal. It
also offered the first commercial advertising service, sending 50,000 SMS's per month with servers in the UK,
Chile and Switzerland. They initially used Vodaphones free -dialin- service but eventually hacked the orange
gateway.
It is also alleged that the fact that roaming customers, in the early days, rarely received bills for their SMSs after
holidays abroad had a boost on text messaging as an alternative to voice calls.
SMS was originally designed as part of GSM, but is now available on a wide range of networks, including 3G
networks. However, not all text messaging systems use SMS, and some notable alternate implementations of the
concept include J-Phone's "SkyMail" and NTT Docomo's "Short Mail", both in Japan. E-mail messaging from
phones, as popularized by NTT Docomo's i-mode and the RIM BlackBerry, also typically use standard mail
protocols such as SMTP over TCP/IP.
Today text messaging is the most widely used mobile data service on the planet, with 72% of all mobile phone
users worldwide or 1.9 Billion out of 2.7 Billion phone subscribers at end of 2006 being active users of the
Short Message Service (SMS). In countries like Finland, Sweden and Norway over 90% of the population use
SMS. The European average is about 85% and North America is rapidly catching up with over 40% active users
of SMS by end of 2006. The largest average usage of the service by mobile phone subscribers is in the
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Philippines with an average of 15 texts sent per day by subscriber. In Singapore the average is 12 and in South
Korea 10.
Text messaging was reported to have addictive tendencies by the Global Messaging Survey by Nokia in 2001
and was confirmed to be addictive by the study at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 2004. Since
then the study at the Queensland University of Australia has found that text messaging is the most addictive
digital service on mobile or internet, and is equivalent in addictiveness to cigarette smoking. The text reception
habit introduces a need to remain connected, called "Reachability".
Technical details
Messages are sent to a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) which provides a store-and-forward mechanism.
It attempts to send messages to their recipients. If a recipient is not reachable, the SMSC queues the message for
later retry. Some SMSCs also provide a "forward and forget" option where transmission is tried only once.
Message delivery is best effort, so there are no guarantees that a message will actually be delivered to its
recipient and delay or complete loss of a message is not uncommon, particularly when sending between
networks. Users may choose to request delivery reports, which can provide positive confirmation that the
message has reached the intended recipient, but notifications for failed deliveries are unreliable at best.
Transmission of the short messages between SMSC and phone can be done through different protocols such as
SS7 within the standard GSM MAP framework or TCP/IP within the same standard. Limitations of the
messages used within these protocols result in the maximum single text message size of either 160 7-bit
characters, 140 8-bit characters, or 70 16-bit characters. Characters in languages such as Arabic, Chinese,
Korean, Japanese or Slavic languages (e.g., Russian) must be encoded using the 16-bit UCS-2 character
encoding (see Unicode).
Larger content (known as long SMS or concatenated SMS) can be sent segmented over multiple messages, in
which case each message will start with a user data header (UDH) containing segmentation information. Since
the segmentation information is carried within the text message, the number of characters per segment is lower:
153 for 7-bit encoding, 134 for 8-bit encoding and 67 for 16-bit encoding. The receiving phone is responsible
for reassembling the message and presenting it to the user as one long message. While the standard theoretically
permits up to 255 segments, 6 to 8 segment messages are the practical maximum, and long messages are often
billed as equivalent to multiple SMS messages.
Some service providers offer the ability to send messages to land line telephones regardless of their capability
of receiving text messages by automatically phoning the recipient and reading the message aloud using a speech
synthesizer along with the number of the sender.
Premium content
SMS is widely used for delivering digital content such as news alerts, financial information, logos and
ringtones. Such messages are also known as premium-rated short messages (PSMS). The subscribers are
charged extra for receiving this premium content, and the amount is typically divided between the mobile
network operator and the value added service provider (VASP) either through revenue share or a fixed transport
fee. Services like 82ASK and Any Question Answered have used the PSMS model to enable rapid response to
mobile consumers' questions, using on-call teams of experts and researchers.
Premium short messages are increasingly being used for "real-world" services. For example, some vending
machines now allow payment by sending a premium-rated short message, so that the cost of the item bought is
added to the user's phone bill or subtracted from the user's prepaid credits. Recently, premium messaging
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companies have come under fire from consumer groups due to a large number of consumers racking up huge
phone bills. Some mobile networks, now require users to call their provider to enable premium messages from
reaching their handset.
A new type of 'free premium' or 'hybrid premium' content has emerged with the launch of text-service websites.
These sites allow registered users to receive free text messages when items they are interested go on sale, or
when new items are introduced.
An alternative to inbound SMS is based on Long numbers (international number format, e.g., +44 7624
805000), which can be used in place of short codes / premium-rated short messages for SMS reception in
several applications, such as TV voting, product promotions and campaigns. Long numbers are internationally
available, as well as enabling businesses to have their own number, rather than short codes which are usually
shared across a lot of brands. Additionally, Long numbers are non-premium inbound numbers.
Popularity
Short message services are developing very rapidly throughout the world. In 2000, just 17 billion SMS
messages were sent; in 2001, the number was up to 250 billion, and 500 billion SMS messages in 2004. At an
average cost of USD 0.10 per message, this generates revenues in excess of $50 billion for mobile telephone
operators and represents close to 100 text messages for every person in the world.
SMS is particularly popular in Europe, Asia (excluding Japan; see below), Australia and New Zealand.
Popularity has grown to a sufficient extent that the term texting (used as a verb meaning the act of mobile phone
users sending short messages back and forth) has entered the common lexicon.
In China, SMS is very popular, and has brought service providers significant profit (18 billion short messages
were sent in 2001). It is a very influential and powerful tool in the Philippines, where the average user sends 1012 text messages a day . The Philippines alone sends on the average 400 million text messages a day or
approximately 142 billion text messages sent a year, more than the annual average SMS volume of the countries
in Europe, and even China and India. SMS is hugely popular in India, where youngsters often exchange lots of
text messages, and companies provide alerts, infotainment, news, cricket scores update, railway/airline booking,
mobile billing, and banking services on SMS.
In 2001, text messaging played an important role in deposing former Philippine president Joseph Estrada.
Short messages are particularly popular amongst young urbanites. In many markets, the service is
comparatively cheap. For example, in Australia a message typically costs between AUD 0.20 and AUD 0.25 to
send (some pre-paid services charge AUD 0.01 between their own phones), compared with a voice call, which
costs somewhere between AUD 0.40 and AUD 2.00 per minute (commonly charged in half-minute blocks).
Despite the low cost to the consumer, the service is enormously profitable to the service providers. At a typical
length of only 190 bytes (incl. protocol overhead), more than 350 of these messages per minute can be
transmitted at the same data rate as a usual voice call (9 kbit/s).
Mobile Service Providers in New Zealand, such as Vodafone and Boost Mobile, provide up to 2000 SMS
messages for NZ$10 per month. Users on these plans send on average 1500 SMS messages every month.
Text messaging has become so popular that advertising agencies and advertisers are now jumping into the text
message business. Services that provide bulk text message sending are also becoming a popular way for clubs,
associations, and advertisers to quickly reach a group of opt-in subscribers. This advertising has proven to be
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extremely effective, but some insiders worry that advertisers may abuse the power of mobile marketing and it
will someday be considered spam.
Europe
Europe follows next behind Asia in terms of the popularity of the use of SMS. In 2003, an average of 16 billion
messages were sent each month. Users in Spain sent a little more than fifty messages per month on average in
2003. In Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom the figure was around 35–40 SMS messages per month. In
each of these countries the cost of sending an SMS message varies from as little as £0.03–£0.18 depending on
the payment plan. Curiously France has not taken to SMS in the same way, sending just under 20 messages on
average per user per month. France has the same GSM technology as other European countries so the uptake is
not hampered by technical restrictions.
In the Republic of Ireland, a total of 1.5 billion messages are sent every quarter, on average 114 messages per
person per month. Whilst in the United Kingdom over 1 billion text messages are sent every week.
The Eurovision Song Contest organized the first pan-European SMS-voting in 2002, as a part of the voting
system (there was also a voting over traditional phone lines). In 2005, the Eurovision Song Contest organized
the biggest televoting ever (with SMS and phone voting).
United States
In the United States, however, the appeal of SMS is more limited. Although an SMS message usually costs only
US$0.15 (many providers also offer monthly text messaging plans), only 13 messages were sent by the average
user per month in 2003. In the US, SMS is often charged both at the sender and at the destination, but it cannot
be rejected or dismissed, as opposed to the phone calls. The reasons for this are varied—many users have
unlimited "mobile-to-mobile" minutes, high monthly minute allotments, or unlimited service. Moreover, push to
talk services offer the instant connectivity of SMS and are typically unlimited. Furthermore, the integration
between competing providers and technologies necessary for cross-network text messaging has only been
available recently. Some providers originally charged extra to enable use of text, further reducing its usefulness
and appeal. The relative popularity of e-mail-based devices such as the BlackBerry in North America may be a
response to the weakness of text messaging there, but these further weaken the appeal of texting among the
users most likely to use it. However the recent addition of Cingular-powered SMS voting on the television
program American Idol has introduced many Americans to SMS, and usage is on the rise In the third quarter of
2006, more than 10 billion text messages crossed Cingular's network, up almost 15 percent from the preceding
quarter.
In the United States, while texting is widely popular among the ages of 10-25 years old, it is increasing among
adults and business users as well. According to both the Mobile Marketing Association and Pew Internet &
American Life Project Surveys, 40% of US Mobile phone users text. The split by age group is as follows: 1324's: 80% text, 18-27's 63% text, 28-39's: 31% text, 40-49's: 18% text. The amount of texts being sent in the
United States has gone up over the years as the price has gone down to an average of $0.10 per text sent and
received. Many providers also will make unlimited texting available for a lower price.
Finland
In addition to SMS voting, a different phenomenon has risen in more mobile-phone-saturated countries. In
Finland some TV channels began "SMS chat", which involved sending short messages to a phone number, and
the messages would be shown on TV a while later. Chats are always moderated, which prevents sending
harmful material to the channel. The craze soon became popular and evolved into games, first slow-paced quiz
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and strategy games. After a while, faster paced games were designed for television and SMS control. Games
tend to involve registering one's nickname, and after that sending short messages for controlling a character on
screen. Messages usually cost 0.05 to 0.86 Euro apiece, and games can require the player to send dozens of
messages. In December 2003, a Finnish TV-channel, MTV3, put a Santa character on air reading aloud
messages sent in by viewers. More recent late-night attractions on the same channel include "Beach Volley", in
which the bikini-clad female hostess blocks balls "shot" by short message. On March 12 2004, the first entirely
"interactive" TV-channel "VIISI" began operation in Finland. That did not last long though, as SBS Finland Oy
took over the channel and turned it into a music channel named "The Voice" in November 2004.
In 2006, the Prime Minister of Finland, Matti Vanhanen, made front page news when he allegedly broke up
with his girlfriend with a text message.
In 2007, the first text message only book, which is about a business executive who travels throughout Europe
and India, was published by a Finnish author.
Japan
Japan was among the first countries to widely adopt short messages, with pioneering non-GSM services
including J-Phone's "SkyMail" and NTT Docomo's "Short Mail". However, short messaging has been largely
rendered obsolete by the prevalence of mobile Internet e-mail, which can be sent to and received from any email address, mobile or otherwise. That said, while usually presented to the user simply as a uniform "mail"
service (and most users are unaware of the distinction), the operators may still internally transmit the content as
short messages, especially if the destination is on the same network.
Philippines
The Philippines is known as the ‘text capital of the world’. ‘Presently each mobile phone user in the Philippines
is sending out at least 10 text messages a day compared to about 3 text messages per user in the United
Kingdom (Pertierra 2005a; cf. Ling 2004). About one Filipino in two is a subscriber to a mobile phone service.
At the end of 2005 four of the top mobile phone service providers in the country stated there were 34.78 million
mobile phone subscribers in the Philippines, this was up from 32.94 million the year before.
One of the main reasons text messages became so popular in the Philippines is the affordabilty. In addition, text
messaging was generally more reliable compared to a fixed phone line or relying on poor mobile phone
coverage that included drop-outs.
The term Generation Y first appeared in an August 1993 magazine AD Age editorial to describe those children
born between 1981–1995. The scope of the term has changed greatly since then, to include, in many cases,
anyone born as early as 1976 and late as 2000.
Use of the term Generation Y to describe any cohort of individuals is controversial for a variety of reasons.
"Generation Y" alludes to a succession from "Generation X", a term which was originally coined as a pejorative
label.
While Generation Y alludes to that cohort's successive relationship to Generation X, the term Echo Boomers is
used to allude to the generation's close tie to the primary childbearing years of Baby Boomers; the term Second
Baby Boom is also used in this way and to denote the population expansion that Generation Y represents. The
terms Millennials and Internet generation ("iGen") are attempts to give the Gen Y cohort more independent
names that are tied with key events and cultural trends that are strongly associated with the generation. No
single term is the "correct" term to describe members of this generation.
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Generation Y are primarily children of the Baby boomers and Generation Jones, though some are children of
older Gen X adults. Because of this, there is a perceived tendency to share social views with the Boomers and
culture with Gen X, who serve chiefly as their 'older cousins' or even older siblings. The actual “Echo Boom”
was a five year span between 1989 and 1993 when for the first time since 1964, the number of live births
reached over four million. Previously, even the rate of 1965 (3.76 million) was not reached until 1985. Also, the
birthrate of 1971 (17.2%) has yet to be reached according to the 2000 census.
A notable demographic shift should begin to occur in 2011 when the oldest Baby Boomers (b. 1946) hit the
United States' legal retirement age of 65. As Boomers retire, more members of Generation X will be expected to
take roles in middle and upper management and the large membership of Generation Y should take up positions
in the lower half of the workforce, a process which may have possibly begun, since some definitions have
members of Gen Y in their late 20s.
Career and the workplace
According to the book Millennial Leaders: Success Stories From Today’s Most Brilliant Generation Y Leaders:,
Dr. Carolyn Martin, a principal with RainMaker Thinking Inc., says that one of the most significant changes in
the workplace that will affect the way Generation Y approaches work is job security. Gen Y’s success will be
increasingly linked to their ability to acquire as wide a variety of marketable skills that they can as they move
about in their career(s).
As of 2007,[5]there are more pronounced generational gaps in communications styles and job expectations in the
workplace. Titled “Gen Y at Work,” the survey was conducted from June 1 to June 13, 2007 among 2,546
hiring managers and Human Resource professionals across all industries.
Nearly half (49 percent) of employers surveyed said the biggest gap in communication styles between
Generation Y workers (employees 29 years old or younger) and workers older than they are is that Gen Y
workers communicate more through technology than in person. Another one-in-four (25 percent) say they have
a different frame of reference, especially in terms of pop culture.
In terms of job expectations, 87 percent of all hiring managers and HR professionals say some or most Gen Y
workers feel more entitled in terms of compensation, benefits and career advancement than older generations.
Seventy-three percent of hiring managers and HR professionals ages 25 to 29 share this sentiment. Employers
provided the following examples:




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74 percent of employers say Gen Y workers expect to be paid more
61 percent say Gen Y workers expect to have flexible work schedules
56 percent say Gen Y workers expect to be promoted within a year
50 percent say Gen Y workers expect to have more vacation or personal time
37 percent say Gen Y workers expect to have access to state-of-the-art technology
Over half (55 percent) of employers over the age of 35 feel Gen Y workers have a more difficult time taking
direction or responding to authority than other generations of workers.
“Generation Y workers are an important segment of the workforce and literally the future of companies and
organizations,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of Human Resources for CareerBuilder.com. “They grew
up in a technology-driven world where standards and norms have changed and often operate under different
perspectives than older co-workers. As companies' cultures evolve with each generation, you see all workers
benefiting from a variety of viewpoints and work styles.”
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Fifteen percent of employers said they changed or implemented new policies or programs to accommodate Gen
Y workers changes, Haefner points out, that would have likely benefited workers of all ages. Examples include:

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
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More flexible work schedules (57 percent);
More recognition programs (33 percent);
More access to state-of-the-art technology (26 percent);
Increased salaries and bonuses (26 percent);
More ongoing education programs (24 percent);
Paying for cell phones, blackberries, etc. (20 percent);
More telecommuting options (18 percent);
More vacation time (11 percent).
Eighty-one percent of 18- to 25-year-olds surveyed a Pew Research Center poll said getting rich is their
generation's most important or second-most-important life goal; 51% said the same about being famous.
Determination
Dates that define a person belonging to Generation X have also been disputed. Others have suggested that such
regional restrictions of use are unnecessary in the ever globalizing world.
Generations are not defined by formal process, but rather by demographers, the media, popular culture, market
researchers, and by members of the generation themselves. For instance, while the periodical American
Demographics typically uses 1976 to demarcate the start of Generation Y, demographers Howe and Strauss
have consistently used "the High School class of 2000", or those born in 1982 as their demarcation. While many
possible years are used as the endpoint of Generation Y, the term is almost never applied to current infants.
Because of the flexible nature of such demographic terms, two people of the same birth year can identify as
either Generation X, Y, or something that follows Y, such as the New Silent Generation and neither is wrong.
Numerous alternative terms (such as "millennials" in the popular press in the United States) have been coined to
describe subjects of the cohort.
As the term "Generation X" was originally coined to describe the post Baby Boomer generation in the United
Kingdom [7] (and later adapted to describe the same generation in the United States and Canada), some use
"Generation Y" only to refer to Americans, Canadians, and other Anglophone people who were born after
Generation X. If the years 1978–2000 are used, as is common in market research, then the size of Generation Y
in the United States is approximately 76 million.
Trends among members
As with previous generations, many trends (and problems) began to surface as members of Generation Y come
of age.

Drug use such as underage drinking and pharming parties are high. It is estimated 77%
have drank underage. According to Time magazine, Pharming parties are get-togethers
where prescription drugs are exchanged. These parties, while not necessarily devoted to
illegal substances, are meeting places to use prescription drugs in order to become
intoxicated. Use of marijuana is also quite high.[citation needed]

Members of this generation are facing higher costs for higher education than previous
generations.
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
As members of Generation Y in the United States begin to enter colleges and universities
in large numbers, some of their Baby Boomer parents are becoming helicopter parents.
Many college advisors and administrators worry that this could have a negative effect on
Generation Y's social progress, ego, and developing maturity.

Business owners in Australia feel that members of Generation Y were found to be
"demanding, impatient and bad at communicating," according to a 2007 survey. The
survey found that almost 70% of those surveyed found their Generation Y workers to be
dissatisfying, with poor spelling and grammar and no understanding of appropriate
corporate behaviors. However, the survey also showed most employers praised the
energy and charisma of their Generation Y workers.

Gen Y represents more than 70 million consumers in the United States. They earn a total
annual income of about $211 billion spend approximately $172 billion per year and
considerably influence many adult consumer buying choices. They also face a greater
degree of direct corporate predation than any other generation in history.
Technology
In their book, Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About
Today's Students, Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa (2007) found that in a survey of 7,705 college
students in the US:
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






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97% own a computer
94% own a cell phone
76% use Instant Messaging.
15% of IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week
34% use websites as their primary source of news
28% own a blog and 44% read blogs
49% download music using peer-to-peer file sharing
75% of college students have a Facebook account [15]
60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod.
Internet generation
In his book Growing Up Digital, business strategist and psychologist Don Tapscott coined the term "Net
Generation" for the group, pointing at the significance of being the first to grow up immersed in a digital—and
Internet—driven world. The NetGen research conducted by Don's company New Paradigm follows those
individuals born between 1977 and 1997.
YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created
in mid-February 2005 by three former PayPal employees. The San Bruno-based service uses Adobe Flash
technology to display a wide variety of video content, including movie clips, TV clips and music videos, as well
as amateur content such as videoblogging and short original videos. In October 2006, Google Inc. announced
that it had reached a deal to acquire the company for US$1.65 billion in Google stock. The deal closed on
November 13, 2006.
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Unregistered users can watch most videos on the site, while registered users are permitted to upload an
unlimited number of videos. Some videos are available only to users of age 18 or older (e.g. videos containing
potentially offensive content). The uploading of pornography or videos containing nudity is prohibited. Related
videos, determined by title and tags, appear onscreen to the right of a given video. In YouTube's second year,
functions were added to enhance user ability to post video 'responses' and subscribe to content feeds.
Few statistics are publicly available regarding the number of videos on YouTube. However, in July 2006, the
company revealed that more than 100 million videos were being watched every day, and 2.5 billion videos were
watched in June 2006. 50,000 videos were being added per day in May 2006, and this increased to 65,000 by
July.
In August 2006, The Wall Street Journal published an article revealing that YouTube was hosting about 6.1
million videos (requiring about 45 terabytes of storage space), and had about 500,000 user accounts. As of
January 6, 2008 , a YouTube search for "*" returns about 64,000,000 videos (the asterisk is a commonly used
wildcard character in search engines, therefore showing all videos). On January 2, the number was 61.7 million,
showing an average of 825,000 new videos every day the past 4 days.
Domain name problem
YouTube's immense success has unintentionally affected the business of an American company, Universal
Tube & Rollform Equipment Corp., whose website, utube.com, was frequently overloaded and shut down by
extremely high numbers of visitors unsure about the spelling of YouTube's domain name, but now utube.com is
up and running again At the beginning of November 2006, Universal Tube filed suit in federal court against
YouTube, requesting that the youtube.com domain be transferred to them.
Recent events
Political campaigning
Political candidates for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election have been using YouTube as an outlet for advertising
their candidacies. Voters can view candidate statements and make videos supporting (or opposing) presidential
candidates (e.g., videos for Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden). Third Party presidential
candidates have also made extensive use of YouTube. Libertarian Steve Kubby's campaign debuted a short
animated film, featuring the faces and voices of campaign contributors who financed its production, on
YouTube on September 29th, 2007. The U.S. media has often commented that YouTube played a significant
role in the 2006 defeat of Republican Senator George Allen due to a video clip of him making allegedly racist
remarks that was continuously replayed by YouTube viewers during the campaign. Political commentators such
as James Kotecki have also joined the YouTube world of politics. Many commentators make videos on
YouTube critiquing a presidential candidate's YouTube videos, or simply using YouTube as a medium to get
their opinions heard. Recently, French and Italian politicians, such as Antonio Di Pietro, have also been using
the site as part of their campaigns. YouTube has also been used by Australian Prime Minister John Howard in
the lead up to the 2007 federal election.
In the run up to the 2008 Presidential elections, CNN aired a debate in which candidates fielded questions
selected from a pool submitted by users of YouTube. Because of the use of technology to aggregate questions
from a wide range of constituents, the forum has been referred to as "most democratic Presidential Debate
ever”.
Copyright infringement and controversial material
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Copyright
YouTube policy does not give permission for anyone to upload content not permitted by United States
copyright law, the organisation frequently removing upon request a vast quantity of infringing content.
Despite this, a large amount of potentially infringing content continues to be uploaded (e.g., television
shows/clips, film clips, commercials, or music videos). This is despite a decision in October 2007 to allow
media companies to block their copyrighted video content loaded onto YouTube without seeking any prior
permission., You Tube does not 'pre-screen' videos uploaded to its site (This is partly due to such pre-screening
creating additional liabilities in respect of infringing material).
Until 2007, unless a copyright holder reported violation or infringement, YouTube generally discovered such
content via indications within the YouTube community through self-policing. For a brief time, individual
members could also report on one another. The flagging feature, intended as a means of reporting questionable
content, has been subject to considerable abuse; for a time, some users were flagging other users' original
content for copyright violations out of spite. YouTube proceeded to remove copyright infringement from the list
of flaggable offenses.
Since 2007, changes to the interface mean that only rights holders are able to directly report copyright
violations, even if they are obvious to casual viewers.
YouTube generally identifies video content through search terms that uploaders associate with clips. Some
deceptive users create alternative search terms when uploading specific file types (similar to the deliberate
misspelling of band names on MP3 filesharing networks).
Hollywood remains divided on YouTube, as "'the marketing guys love YouTube and the legal guys hate it.'"
Further,
While lawyers are demanding filtering technology, many Hollywood execs actually enjoy the fact that YouTube only
takes down clips when they request it. "If I found part of a successful show up on YouTube today, I'd probably pull it
down immediately .... If I had a show that wasn't doing so well in the ratings and could use the promotion, I wouldn't be in
a rush to do that."
Content owners are not just targeting YouTube for copyright infringements, but are also targeting third party
websites that link to infringing content on YouTube and other video-sharing sites, for example,
QuickSilverScreen vs. Fox, Daily Episodes vs. Fox, and Columbia vs. Slashfilm. The liability of linking
remains a grey area with cases for and against. The law in the U.S. currently leans towards website owners
being liable for infringing linksalthough they are often protected by the DMCA providing they take down
infringing content when issued with a take down notice. However, a recent court ruling in the U.S. found
Google not liable for linking to infringing content (Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc.).
Examples of infringement complaints
On October 5, 2006, the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC)
finalized their copyright complaints regarding Japanese media on YouTube. Thousands of media from popular
Japanese artists (such as Tokyo Jihen and other music including Jpop) were removed.
When CBS and Universal Music Group signed agreements to provide content on YouTube, they announced a
new technology to help them find and remove copyrighted material.
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TV journalist Robert Tur filed the first lawsuit against the company in the summer of 2006, alleging copyright
infringement for hosting a number of famous news clips without permission. The case has yet to be resolved.
On November 9, 2006, Artie Lange said that his lawyers were in talks with YouTube, after Lange learned that
his entire DVD, It's the Whiskey Talking, was available for free on the website. He added that he will either
demand money from them, or will sue.
Viacom and the British Broadcasting Corporation both demanded YouTube to take down more than 200,000
videos.
Viacom announced it was suing YouTube, and its owner Google, for more than $1 billion in the United States
District Court for the Southern District of New York. Viacom claims that YouTube posted over 160,000 of their
videos on the website without their permission.
In 2007 a 15-year-old Australian boy managed to get YouTube to delete over 200 YouTube videos belonging to
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation using a fake DMCA take down notice. When the fake DMCA notice
arrived, the ABC already had in place a long-standing deal with YouTube to freely share its videos. In his handwritten letter, the boy claimed that he was acting on behalf of the "Australian Broddcasting[sic] Corperation[sic]",
giving his own Hotmail address as his business contact and demanded that hundreds of videos from ABC's The
Chaser's War on Everything television program be deleted from YouTube's servers. Despite the boy not having
any affiliation with the ABC and the spelling errors on his hand-written form, YouTube did delete all of the
videos at the boy's request and replaced each with a message stating "This video is no longer available due to a
copyright claim by Australian Broadcasting Corporation".
Use of acoustic fingerprints
On October 12, 2006, YouTube announced that because of recent agreements with high-profile content creators,
they are now required to use antipiracy software, which uses an audio-signature technology that can detect a
low-quality copy of licensed video. YouTube would have to substitute an approved version of any clip or
remove the material immediately. Industry analysts speculated that removal of content with such a system might
reduce overall user satisfaction.
On April 16, 2007, Google's CEO Eric E. Schmidt presented a keynote speech at the NAB Convention in Las
Vegas. During the Q&A session, Schmidt announced that YouTube was close to enacting a content filtering
system to remove infringing content from the service. The new system, called "Claim Your Content", will
automatically identify copyrighted material for removal.
Google spokesperson Ricardo Reyes stated on June 13, 2007 that the company was seeking "a way to make
video identification technology a reality" when they began to test the system in the next few days.
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking website, launched on February 4, 2004. Facebook was founded by Mark
Zuckerberg, a former Harvard student. Initially the membership of Facebook was restricted to students of
Harvard College. It was subsequently expanded to MIT, Boston University, Boston College, and all Ivy League
schools within two months. Many individual universities were added in rapid succession over the next year.
Eventually, people with a university (e.g .edu, .ac.uk, etc.) email address from institutions across the globe were
eligible to join. Networks were then initiated for high schools on February 27, 2006 and some large companies.
Since September 11, 2006, anyone 13 or older may join. Users can select to join one or more participating
networks, such as a high school, place of employment, or geographic region.
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The site has more than 58 million active users (including non-collegiate members) worldwide, with membership
expected to surpass 60 million users by the end of 2007. From September 2006 to September 2007 the site's
traffic ranking increased from 60th to 7th, according to Alexa. It is the number one site for photos in the United
States with over 60 million photos uploaded weekly.
The name of the site refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of the campus community that some U.S.
colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other
people on campus.
The site is free to users and generates revenue from advertising including banner ads and sponsored groups (in
April 2006, revenue was rumored to be over $1.5 million per week). Users create profiles that often contain
photos and lists of personal interests, exchange private or public messages, and join groups of friends. The
viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same network or confirmed friends. According to
TechCrunch, "about 85% of students in [previously] supported colleges have a profile [on the site]. [Of those
who are signed up,] 60% log in daily. About 85% log in at least once a week, and 93% log in at least once a
month." According to Chris Hughes, spokesman for Facebook, "People spend an average of 19 minutes a day
on Facebook." In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a New Jersey-based limited liability company
specialising in research concerning the college student market, Facebook was named as the second most "in"
thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and sex and losing only to the iPod.
Origins and expansion
Mark Zuckerberg founded "The Facebook" in February 2004, while attending Harvard University, with support
from Andrew McCollum and Eduardo Saverin. By the end of the month, more than half of the undergraduate
population at Harvard were registered on the service. At that time, Zuckerberg was joined by Dustin Moskovitz
and Chris Hughes for site promotion and Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.[12] This
expansion continued in April of 2004 when it expanded to the rest of Ivy League and a few other schools. At the
end of the school year, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz moved out to Palo Alto, California with McCollum, who had
a summer internship at Electronic Arts. They rented a house near Stanford University where they were joined
by Adam D'Angelo and Sean Parker. Soon McCollum decided to leave EA and help with the development of
Facebook and a companion website, Wirehog, full-time. In September, Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss
and Tyler Winklevoss, the owners of the social networking website HarvardConnection, subsequently changed
to ConnectU, filed a lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that Zuckerberg had illegally used source code intended
for the website they asked him to build for them. Also at that time, Facebook received approximately $500,000
from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in an angel round. By December, Facebook's user base had exceeded one
million.
2005
In May 2005, Facebook raised $12.8 million in venture capital from Accel Partners. On August 23, 2005,
Facebook bought the domain name facebook.com from the Aboutface Corporation for $200,000 and dropped
"the" from its name. At that time the site was overhauled, a change intended to make profile pages more userfriendly, according to Zuckerberg. Also that month McCollum went back to Harvard although he continued to
serve as a consultant and returned to work on staff during the summers. As before, Hughes remained in
Cambridge while he performed his duties as company spokesperson. Then, on September 2, 2005, Zuckerberg
launched the high school iteration of Facebook, calling it the next logical thing to do. While initially described
as separate "communities" to which users needed to be invited to participate, within only fifteen days most high
school networks did not require a password to join (although registration with Facebook was still necessary.) By
October, Facebook's expansion had trickled down to most small universities and junior colleges in the United
States, Canada, and the UK, in addition to having expanded to twenty-one universities in the United Kingdom,
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the entire Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) system in Mexico, the entire
University of Puerto Rico network in Puerto Rico, and the whole University of the Virgin Islands network in the
U.S. Virgin Islands. On December 11, 2005, universities in Australia and New Zealand were added to the
Facebook network, bringing its size to more than 2,000 colleges and more than 25,000 high schools throughout
the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.
2006
On February 27, 2006, Facebook began allowing college students to add high school students as friends due to
requests from users. About a month later, on March 28, 2006, BusinessWeek reported that a potential acquisition
of the site was under negotiation. Facebook reportedly declined an offer of $750 million, and it was rumored
that the asking price was as high as $2 billion. In April, Peter Thiel, Greylock Partners, and Meritech Capital
Partners invested an additional $25 million in the site. In May, Facebook's network extended into India, at
Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The following month
Facebook threatened to seek costs of up to $100,000 from Quizsender.com for copyright infringement for
allegedly copying the "look and feel" of Facebook.[20][21] On July 25, new services were offered in the site that
would potentially produce additional revenue. A promotion was arranged between Facebook and iTunes, in
which members of the Apple Students group would receive a free 25 song sampler each week until September
30 in various music genres. The promotion's purpose was to make students more familiar with and enthusiastic
about each service as fall classes approached. In the early half of August, Facebook added universities in
Germany and high schools in Israel, (Haifa, Jerusalem, and Qiryat Gat) to its network. On the 22nd of that
month, Facebook introduced Facebook Notes, a blogging feature with tagging, embedded images, and other
features, also allowing the importation of blogs from Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, and other blogging services.
This newly added feature also included the common blog feature of allowing readers to comment on users'
entries. On September 11, 2006, Facebook became open to all users of the Internet, prompting protest from its
existing user base. Two weeks later, Facebook opened registration to anyone with a valid e-mail address.
2007
On May 10, 2007, Facebook announced a plan to add free classified advertisements to its website, making it a
competitor with established online companies such as Craigslist. This feature, known as Facebook Marketplace,
went live on May 14, 2007; Facebook launched an API that allows the development of applications to be used
on the site, known as Facebook Platform.
In June, the partnership begun the previous year between iTunes and Facebook continued, with the download
service again offering free music samplers through the Apple Students group.
In July, Facebook announced its first acquisition, purchasing Parakey, Inc. from Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt. In
August, the company was featured in a Newsweek cover story by Steven Levy in the magazine's annual college
edition. Facebook hired YouTube's former CFO Gideon Yu on July 24, 2007. Gideon Yu succeeded Michael
Sheridan.
In October Microsoft purchased a 1.6% share in the company for $240 million. An outright sale of Facebook is
said to be unlikely as founder Mark Zuckerberg would like to keep it independent.
On November 7, 2007, Facebook announced Facebook Ads; Facebook Beacon, a marketing initiative which
includes a system for websites to allow users to share chosen information about their activities on the sites with
their Facebook friends ; the capability of businesses to host pages on Facebook for various brands, products and
services (Facebook Pages); a targeted ad serving program based on user and friend profile and activity data
(Facebook Social Ads); and a service for providing businesses with advertisement analytic data including
performance metrics (Facebook Insights). With respect to privacy, Facebook states that "no personally
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identifiable information is shared with an advertiser in creating a Social Ad," and that "Facebook users will only
see Social Ads to the extent their friends are sharing information with them".Facebook Ads replaces the site's
previous Facebook Flyers program. On November 30, 2007, it was reported that Hong Kong billionaire Li Kashing had invested $60 million in Facebook.
On 5 December 2007, Mark Zuckerberg publicly apologized for the way that Facebook launched the Beacon
system, saying "The problem with our initial approach of making it an opt-out system instead of opt-in was that
if someone forgot to decline to share something, Beacon still went ahead and shared it with their friends."
Beacon can now be disabled through a new External websites section in Privacy.
Site features
The Wall
The Wall is a space on each user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see. One
user's wall is visible to anyone with the ability to see their full profile, and different users' wall posts show up in
an individual's News Feed. Many users use their friend's walls for leaving short, temporal notes. More private
discourse is saved for Messages, which are sent to a person's Inbox, and are visible only to the sender and
recipient(s) of the Message, much like email.
In July 2007, Facebook allowed users to post attachments to the wall, whereas previously the wall was limited
to textual content only.
Gifts
In February 2007, Facebook added a new gift feature to the website. Friends could send "gifts" -- small icons of
novelty items designed by former Apple designer Susan Kare -- to each other by selecting one from Facebook's
virtual gift shop and adding a message. Gifts given to a user appear on the recipient's wall with the giver's
message, unless the giver decided to give the gift privately, in which case the giver's name and message is not
displayed to other users. Additionally, all gifts (including private gifts) received by a user are displayed in the
recipient's "gift box" (right above their wall on their profile), marked with either the first name of the user (for
public gifts) or the word "Private." An "Anonymous" option is also available, by which anyone with profile
access can see the gift, but only the recipient will see the message. None will see the giver's name, and the gift
will go in the recipient's gift box but not the wall.
Facebook users are given one free gift to give upon account signup. Each additional gift given by a user costs
USD $1.00. The initial selection of gifts was Valentine's Day themed, and 50% of the net proceeds (after credit
card processing fees were taken out, etc.) received through February 2007 were donated to the charity Susan G.
Komen for the Cure. After the month of February, the proceeds were no longer donated. Soon after, Facebook
began making one new gift available each day, most of which had a limited supply or were available for a
limited time.
With the advent of Applications came a way to subvert the required US$1.00 payment; however, the gifts in the
"Free Gifts" application, created by Zachary Allia, are not the same as the official gifts, as they are displayed in
a different manner.
Marketplace
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In May 2007, Facebook introduced the Facebook Marketplace allowing users to post free classified ads within
the following categories: For Sale, Housing, Jobs, and Other. Ads can be posted in either available or wanted
format. The market place is available for all Facebook users and is currently free.
Pokes
Facebook includes a "poke" feature which allows one user to send a "poke" to another. According to Facebook's
FAQ section on the Poke Feature, "a poke is a way to interact with your friends on Facebook. When we created
the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose. People interpret the poke
in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings." In principle this is
intended to serve as a "nudge" to attract the attention of the other user. However while many Facebook users, as
intended, use the feature to attract attention or say hello, some users construe it as a sexual advance. This
interpretation of the feature inspired a popular Facebook group titled "Enough with the Poking, Lets Just Have
Sex", which, as of December 2007, has more than 340,000 members.
There are several applications such as "X Me" and "SuperPoke!", that allow users to put any action in place of
the word "poke."
Status
The "status" feature allows users to inform their friends and the Facebook community of their current
whereabouts and actions. Facebook originally prompted the status update with "User name is..." and Facebook
users filled in the rest. However, on December 13, 2007, the requirement to start a status update with "is" was
removed, and all status updates read "User name ..." Status updates are noted in the "Recently updated" section
of a users' friend list.
Events
Facebook events are a way for members to let friends know about upcoming events in their community and to
organize social gatherings.
Applications
On May 24, 2007, Facebook launched the Facebook Platform, which provides a framework for developers to
create applications that interact with core Facebook features. Even games such as chess and Scrabble are
available. As of 5 December 2007, there are more than 10,000 applications.
Third-party websites such as Adonomics, which provides application metrics, and blogs such as AppRate,
Inside Facebook and Face Reviews have sprung up in response to the clamor for Facebook applications.
On July 4, 2007, Altura Ventures announced the "Altura 1 Facebook Investment Fund," becoming the world's
first Facebook-only venture capital firm.
On August 29, 2007, Facebook changed the way in which the popularity of applications is measured, in order to
give more attention to the more engaging applications, following criticism that ranking applications only by the
number of users was giving an advantage to the highly viral, yet useless applications. Tech blog Valleywag has
criticized Facebook Applications, labeling them a "cornucopia of uselessness." Others have called for limiting
third-party applications so the Facebook "user experience" is not degraded.
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Primarily attempting to create viral applications is a method that has certainly been employed by numerous
Facebook application developers. Stanford University even offered a class in the Fall of 2007, entitled,
Computer Science (CS) 377W: "Create Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook".
Numerous applications created by the class were highly successful, and ranked amongst the top Facebook
applications, with some achieving over 3.5 million users in a month.
Facebook Video
During the time that Facebook released its platform, it also released an application of its own for sharing videos
on Facebook. Users can add their videos with the service by uploading video, adding video through Facebook
Mobile, and using a webcam recording feature. Additionally, users can "tag" their friends in videos they add
much like the way users can tag their friends in photos.
Technical details
Facebook Markup Language
Facebook Markup Language ("FBML") is a variant evolved subset of HTML with some elements removed. It
allows Facebook application writers to customise the "look and feel" of their applications, to a limited extent. It
is the specification of how to encode your content so that Facebook's servers can read and publish it, which you
will need to use in your Facebook-specific feed so that Facebook's system can properly parse your content and
publish it as specified. You set the FBML for a profile box by calling profile.setFBML through the API. The
FBML is cached on Facebook's server until profile.setFBML is called again through a canvas page. The official
FBML documentation is now hosted on the Facebook Developers Wiki.
The FBML will expand to something like this:
<input
<input
<input
<input
<input
type="hidden"
type="hidden"
type="hidden"
type="hidden"
type="hidden"
name="fb_sig_profile" value="1160"/>
name="fb_sig_user" value="1160"/>
name="fb_sig_session_key" value="b12d7f73fc47536b32e89e-1160"/>
name="fb_sig_time" value="1176705186"/>
name="fb_sig" value="773af1263c2b7bade7958e6b58d3152f"/>
The fb_sig value is generated using all of the other fb_sig_ parameters (but without the "fb_sig_" prefix
included in their names) identically to how it is generated in the API authentication scheme. The fb_sig_user
and fb_sig_session_key parameters will only be included if the user has a valid session with the application.
The diagram on the right, expressed using the UML standard notation for class diagrams, represents a subset of
the information managed by Facebook. It gives a concise picture of the various entities, relations and fields
stored in the database.
For instance, the diagram shows what fields are associated with the notion of Job, School, CreditCard,
ScreenName, and so on (see the corresponding yellow boxes representing classes).
Note that this is a conceptual class diagram: it describes the concepts rather than the implementation and the
detail of the database. For more information about technical models, see FQL - Facebook Query Language
(SQL-like query language).
Infrastructure
For running its operations Facebook uses the software bundle known as LAMP.
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Sale rumors
In 2006, with the sale of social networking site MySpace to NewsCorp, rumors surfaced about the possible sale
of Facebook to a larger media company. Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, had already said that he did not
want to sell the company and denied rumors to the contrary. He had already rejected outright offers in the range
of $975 million, and it was not clear who might be willing to pay a higher premium for the site. Steve
Rosenbush, a technology business analyst, suspected Viacom might.
In September 2006, serious talks between Facebook and Yahoo! took place for the acquisition of the social
network, with prices reaching as high as $1 billion. In October 2007, after Google purchased video-sharing site
YouTube, rumors circulated that Google had offered $2.3 billion to outbid Yahoo!. Peter Thiel, a board member
of Facebook, indicated that Facebook's internal valuation is around $8 billion based on their projected revenues
of $1 billion by 2015, comparable to that of Viacom's MTV brand and based on shared target demographic
audience.
In September 2007, Microsoft approached Facebook, proposing an investment in return for a 5% stake in the
company. Microsoft would pay an estimated 300 to 500 million dollars for the share. Other companies such as
Google had also expressed interest in buying a portion of Facebook. On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced
that it had bought a 1.6% share of Facebook for $246 million.
Use in investigations
The information students provide on Facebook has been used in investigations by colleges, universities, and
local police. Facebook's Terms of Use specify that "the website is available for your personal, noncommercial
use only", misleading some to believe that college administrators and police may not use the site for conducting
investigations. Furthermore, some employers look at Facebook profiles of prospective employees or interns.
Information posted on Facebook is potentially accessible to employers with faculty or alumni accounts.
Blocking of Facebook in Syria
In November of 2007, Facebook was blocked by the Syrian government on the premise that it promoted attacks
on the authorities. No comment was made from the government that blocked it, which has started a crackdown
on online political activism in that period.
Responses
Schools blocking access
The University of New Mexico (UNM) in October 2005 blocked access to Facebook from UNM campus
computers and networks, citing unsolicited e-mails and a similar site called UNM Facebook. After a UNM user
signed into Facebook from off campus, a message from Facebook said, "We are working with the UNM
administration to lift the block and have explained that it was instituted based on erroneous information, but
they have not yet committed to restore your access." UNM, in a message to students who tried to access the site
from the UNM network, wrote, "This site is temporarily unavailable while UNM and the site owners work out
procedural issues. The site is in violation of UNM's Acceptable Computer Use Policy for abusing computing
resources (e.g., spamming, trademark infringement, etc.). The site forces use of UNM credentials (e.g., NetID
or email address) for non-UNM business." However, after Facebook created an encrypted login and displayed a
precautionary message not to use university passwords for access, UNM unblocked access the following spring
semester.
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The Columbus Dispatch reported on June 22, 2006, that Kent State University's athletic director had planned to
ban the use of Facebook by athletes and gave them until August 1 to delete their accounts.On July 5, 2006, the
Daily Kent Stater reported that the director reversed the decision after reviewing the privacy settings of
Facebook.
Most school boards in North America that run elementary schools to high schools have the access to Facebook
blocked.
Organizations blocking Facebook
Ontario government employees, MPPs, and cabinet ministers were blocked from access to Facebook on
government computers in May 2007. When the employees tried to access Facebook, a warning message "The
Internet website that you have requested has been deemed unacceptable for use for government business
purposes". This warning also appears when employees try to access YouTube, gambling or pornographic
websites. However, innovative employees have found ways around such protocols, and many claim to use the
site for political or work-related purposes.
The New South Wales Department of Education and Training has also blocked all users (students and staff)
from accessing Facebook, as have many other government departments in Australia.
Facebook memorials
A notable ancillary effect of social networking websites, particularly Facebook, is the ability for participants to
mourn publicly for a deceased individual. On Facebook, students often leave messages of sadness, grief, or
hope on the individual's page, transforming it into a sort of public book of condolences. This particular
phenomenon has been documented at a number of schools. Previously, Facebook had stated that its official
policy on the matter was to remove the profile of the deceased one month after he or she has died, preventing
the profile from being used for communal mourning, citing privacy concerns. Due to user response, Facebook
amended its policy. Its new policy is to place deceased members' profiles in a "memorialization state".
Additional usage of Facebook as a tool of remembrance is expressed in group memberships on the site. Now
that groups are community-wide and available among all networks, many users create Facebook groups to
remember not only a deceased friend or individual, but also as a source of support in response to an occurrence
such as September 11, 2001 attacks or the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007.
Customization and security
Facebook is often compared to MySpace but one significant difference between the two sites is the level of
customization. MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and CSS while Facebook only
allows plain text. However, a number of users have tweaked their profiles by using "hacks." On February 24,
2006, a pair of users exploited a cross-site scripting (XSS) hole on the profile page and created a fast-spreading
worm, loading a custom CSS file on infected profiles that made them look like MySpace profiles. Notably, both
users are now employed by Facebook.[citation needed] On April 19, 2006, a user was able to embed an iframe into
his profile and load a custom off-site page featuring a streaming video and a flash game from Drawball. He has
since been banned from Facebook. On March 26, 2006, a user was able to embed JavaScript in the "Hometown"
field of his profile which imported his custom CSS. In each case, Facebook quickly patched the holes, typically
within hours of their discovery. In July 2007, Adrienne Felt, an undergraduate student at the University of
Virginia, discovered a cross-site scripting (XSS) hole in the Facebook Platform that could inject JavaScript into
profiles, which was used to import custom CSS and demonstrate how the platform could be used to violate
privacy rules or create a worm. This hole took Facebook two and a half weeks to fix.
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LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-oriented networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003
(comparable to a social networking site), mainly used for professional networking. As of December 2007, it had
more than 17 million registered users, spanning 150 industries and more than 400 economic regions (as
classified by the service).
Company info
LinkedIn's CEO is Dan Nye, while former CEO and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, previously an executive
vice president of PayPal, remains as President of Product and Chairman of the Board. LinkedIn is located in
Mountain View, California, and funded by Greylock, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and the
European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006.
LinkedIn.com is a private firm operating an internet web portal to foster the development of social networking
for professional development and career enhancement in the business community. As of December 2007, it had
approximately 3.2 million visitors per month and an annual growth rate in visitors of about 485%.
Features
The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and
trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or
not) to become a connection.
This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:




A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of
each of their connections (termed second degree connections) and also the connections of
second degree connections (termed third degree connections). This can be used to gain an
introduction to someone you wish to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by
someone in one's contact network.
Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing
contacts can introduce them.
The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either a preexisting relationship, or
the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participates
in EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.
The feature LinkedIn Answers, similar to Google Answers or Yahoo! Answers, allows users to ask questions
for the community to answer. This feature is free and the main differences from the two previously mentioned
services are that questions are potentially more business-oriented, and the identity of the people asking and
answering questions is known.
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Model of the domain
The diagram on the right, expressed using the UML standard notation for class diagrams, represents a subset of
the information managed by LinkedIn. It gives a global overview of the core entities, relations and fields stored
by the system.
For instance, the diagram shows what fields are associated with the notion of Position,
RecommendationRequest, Education and so on (see the corresponding boxes representing classes).
Note that this is only a conceptual class diagram; it describes the concepts rather than the implementation and
the details of the database.
Privacy issues


Non-members can check whether or not a person is a member. As of August 2007, this
feature can be disabled.
There is no automated way to remove oneself from LinkedIn. The official method is to file a
customer support ticket.
Sites with comparable features
There are several websites that offer online business networking, including ryze, XING, Plaxo, Yahoo!
Kickstart and, increasingly Facebook. LinkedIn answers is comparable to Yahoo! Answers. Various websites
such as CareerBuilder.com, Yahoo! HotJobs, GlobalPitch.com and Monster.com have job search functions.
Many websites have reputation systems and online social networking.
Plaxo
Plaxo is an online address book service founded by Napster co-founder Sean Parker, Minh Nguyen, and two
Stanford engineering students, Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring. Plaxo, based in Mountain View, California, is
currently privately held and supported by venture capital. In October 2006, the website reported 15 million
users.
Plaxo provides automatic updating of contact information. Users and their contacts store their information on
Plaxo's servers. When this information is edited by the user, the changes appear in the address books of all those
who listed the account changer in their own books. Once contacts are stored in the central location, it is possible
to list connections between contacts and access the address book from anywhere.
A Plaxo plug-in supports major address books including Outlook/Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, and
Mac OS X's Address Book, though other ones can be supported through an application programming interface.
Additionally, Plaxo can also be maintained through an online version.
Plaxo received criticism from technology journalist David Coursey, who was upset about receiving a number of
requests from Plaxo users to update their contact information, and who wondered how the company was
planning to make money from a free service that collects personal contact and network information. However
after "changes at Plaxo and discussions with the company's remaining co-founders", Coursey reversed his
stance. Plaxo also responded to these issues in a section of their website.
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Plaxo 3.0
On June 24, 2007 Plaxo announced the public beta of a major new version of its service, called Plaxo 3.0. The
service emphasizes "automated, multi-way sync."
Plaxo Pulse
On August 5, 2007 Plaxo announced the public beta of a social networking service called Plaxo Pulse. The
service enables sharing of content from multiple different sources across the social web, including blogs,
photos, social networking services, rating services, and others. Users can selectively share and view content
according to either pre-determined categories (e.g. friends, family, business network) or customized groups.
Plaxo Pulse was the first site to feature a working version of an OpenSocial container.
MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal
profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills,
California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media; in turn,
the owner of Fox Interactive and therefore MySpace, News Corporation, has its headquarters in New York City.
According to Alexa Internet, MySpace is currently the world's sixth most popular English-language website and
the sixth most popular website in any language, and the third most popular website in the United States, though
it has topped the chart on various weeks.The service has gradually gained more popularity than similar websites
to achieve nearly 80 percent of visits to online social networking websites.
The company employs 300 staff and does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation.
With the 100 millionth account being created on August 9, 2006, in the Netherlands and a news story claiming
106 million accounts on September 8, 2006, the site reportedly attracts new registrations at a rate of 230,000 per
day. As of December 18, 2007, there are over 300 million accounts.
eUniverse (which in 2004 changed its name to Intermix Media) created and marketed the Myspace website in
1999, providing the division with a complete infrastructure of finance, human resources, technical expertise,
bandwidth, and server capacity right out of the gate so the MySpace team wasn’t distracted with typical start-up
issues. The project was overseen by Brad Greenspan (eUniverse's Founder, Chairman, CEO), who managed
Chris DeWolfe (MySpace's current CEO), Josh Berman, Tom Anderson (MySpace's current president), and a
team of programmers and resources provided by eUniverse.
The very first MySpace users were eUniverse employees. The company held contests to see who could sign-up
the most users. The company then used its resources to push MySpace to the masses. eUniverse used its 20
million users and e-mail subscribers to quickly breathe life into MySpace , and move it to the head of the pack
of social networking websites. A key architect was tech expert Toan Nguyen who helped stabilize the MySpace
platform when Brad Greenspan asked him to join the team.
Shortly after launching MySpace, team member Chris DeWolfe in its first business plan suggested that they
start charging a fee for the basic MySpace service. Brad Greenspan nixed the idea, believing that keeping
MySpace free and open was necessary to make it a large and successful community.
Some employees of MySpace including DeWolfe and Berman were later able to purchase equity in the property
before MySpace, and its parent company eUniverse (now renamed ‘Intermix’), were bought in July 2005 for
US$580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (the parent company of Fox Broadcasting and other
media enterprises). Of this amount, approx. US$327m has been attributed to the value of MySpace according to
the financial adviser fairness opinion.
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In January 2006, Fox announced plans to launch a UK version of MySpace in a bid to "tap into the UK music
scene" which they have since done. They also released it in China and will possibly launch it in other countries
The corporate history of MySpace as well as the status of Tom Anderson as a MySpace founder has been a
matter of some public dispute.
Contents of a MySpace profile
Blurbs, blogs, multimedia
Profiles contain two standard "blurbs:" "About Me" and "Who I'd Like to Meet" sections. Profiles also contain
an "Interests" section and a "Details" section. However, fields in these sections will not be displayed if members
do not fill them in. Profiles also contain a blog with standard fields for content, emotion, and media. MySpace
also supports uploading images. One of the images can be chosen to be the "default image," the image that will
be seen on the profile's main page, search page, and as the image that will appear to the side of the user's name
on comments, messages, etc. Flash, such as on MySpace's video service, can be embedded. Also there is a
"details" section which allows the user to provide personal information on the user such as his/her race, religion,
sexual orientation.
Comments
Below the User's Friends Space (by default) is the "comments" section, wherein the user's friends may leave
comments for all viewers to read. MySpace users have the option to delete any comment and/or require all
comments to be approved before posting. If a user's account is deleted, every comment left on other profiles by
that user will be deleted, and replaced with the comment saying "This Profile No Longer Exists." Some people
leave comments such as "Thanks for the add!" if the person added him or her as a friend. Sometimes if they
don't like each other anymore, they might say "You suck!" and block the person. Some people abuse the system
so that they may add a person as a friend, only to say "You dumb ass!" and delete them as a friend.
Profile customization (HTML)
MySpace allows users to customize their user profile pages by entering HTML (but not JavaScript) into such
areas as "About Me," "I'd Like to Meet," and "Interests." Videos, and flash-based content can be included this
way. Users also have the option to add music to their profile pages via MySpace Music, a service that allows
bands to post songs for use on MySpace.
A user can also change the general appearance of his page by entering CSS (in a <style> ... </style>
element) into one of these fields to override the page's default style sheet using MySpace editors. This is often
used to tweak fonts and colors, but it has its limitations due to poorly-structured HTML used on the profile
page. The fact that the user-added CSS is located in the middle of the page (rather than being located in the
<head> element) means that the page will begin to load with the default MySpace layout before abruptly
changing to the custom layout. A special type of modification is a div overlay, where the default layout is
dramatically changed by hiding default text with <div> tags and large images.
There are several independent web sites offering MySpace layout design utilities which let a user select options
and preview what their page will look like with them.
MySpace has recently added its own "Profile Customizer" to the site, allowing users to change their profile
through MySpace. Using this feature bypasses the CSS loading delay issue, as the MySpace default code is
changed for the customized profile.
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Music
MySpace profiles for musicians are different from normal profiles in that artists are allowed to upload up to six
MP3 songs. The uploader must have rights to use the songs (e.g their own work, permission granted, etc).
Unsigned musicians can use MySpace to post and sell music, which has proven popular among MySpace users.
MySpace features
Bulletins
Bulletins are posts that are posted on to a "bulletin board" for everyone on a MySpace user's friends list to see.
Bulletins can be useful for notifying an entire, but usually a portion of the friends list (depending on how many
friends are added), without resorting to messaging users individually. Some users choose to use Bulletins as a
service for delivering chain messages about politics, religion, or anything else and sometimes these chain
messages are considered threatening to the users, especially the ones that mention bad luck, death, or topics
similar to that.They have also become the primary attack point for phishing. Bulletins are deleted after ten days.
Groups
MySpace has a Groups feature which allows a group of users to share a common page and message board.
Groups can be created by anybody, and the moderator of the group can choose for anyone to join, or to approve
or deny requests to join.
MySpaceIM
In early 2006, MySpace introduced MySpaceIM, an instant messenger that uses one's MySpace account as a
screen name. A MySpace user logs in to the client using the same e-mail associated with his or her MySpace
account. Unlike other parts of MySpace, MySpaceIM is stand-alone software for Microsoft Windows. Users
who use MySpaceIM get instant notification of new MySpace messages, friend requests, and comments.
MySpaceTV
In early 2007, MySpace introduced MySpaceTV, not a YouTube look-alike video sharing website.
MySpace Mobile
There are a variety of environments in which users can access MySpace content on their mobile phone.
American mobile phone provider Helio released a series of mobile phones in early 2006 that can utilise a
service known as MySpace Mobile to access and edit one's profile and communicate with, and view the profiles
of, other members. Additionally, UIEvolution and MySpace developed a mobile version of MySpace for a
wider range of carriers, including AT&T, Vodafone and Rogers Wireless.
MySpace News
In the month of April 2007, MySpace launched a news service called MySpace News which displays news from
RSS feeds that users submit. It also allows users to rank each news story by voting for it. The more votes a story
gets, the higher the story moves up the page.
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MySpace Classifieds
Full service classifieds listing offered beginning in August 2006. Has grown by 33 percent in one year since
inception.
Controversy over corporate history
Spam/Tom Anderson PR
In September 2006, a lengthy article written by web journalist Trent Lapinski, "MySpace: The Business of
Spam 2.0", was published by the Silicon Valley gossip blog, Valleywag (a Gawker Media property). The article
recounted a detailed corporate history of MySpace, alleging that MySpace was not organically grown from Tom
Anderson's garage, but rather was a product developed by eUniverse aimed at overtaking Friendster, and that
had initially gained popularity through an intensive mass internet campaign and not by word of mouth. Amongst
other claims was the assertion that Tom Anderson had originally been hired as a copyeditor and his "founder"
and "first friend" status was a public relations invention. Lapinski suggested that News Corp. had attempted to
suppress the publication of the history by threatening his original publisher.
Brad Greenspan / The MySpace Report
In October 2006, Brad Greenspan (the former Chairman, CEO and largest individual shareholder of Intermix
Media, who claims to be the true "founder of MySpace") launched a website and published "The MySpace
Report" that called for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the United States Department of Justice and
the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance to investigate News Corp's acquisition of MySpace as "one of the largest
merger and acquisition scandals in U.S. history." The report's main allegation is that News Corp. should have
valued MySpace at US$20 billion rather than US$327 million, and had, in effect, defrauded Intermix
shareholders through an unfair deal process.The report received a mixed response from financial commentators
in the press.An initial lawsuit led by Greenspan challenging the acquisition was dismissed by a judge.
Greenspan's report also states that the MySpace program code had originally been the brainchild of an
Intermix/eUniverse programmer named Toan Nguyen who made the breakthrough technical contributions to the
project.
Valleywag speculated that Greenspan was likely a key source for Lapinski's September article, "MySpace
founder accuses company of defrauding investors of $20 billion."
Criticism
Customer Service
To compound potential issues, MySpace has no customer service telephone number readily available for the
public,and contacting them for help via any other available corporate phone numbers rarely yields substantial
results.
Accessibility and reliability
Because most MySpace pages are designed by individuals with little HTML experience, a very large proportion
of pages do not satisfy the criteria for valid HTML or CSS laid down by the W3C. Poorly formatted code can
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cause accessibility problems for those using software such as screen readers. The MySpace home page, as of
December 27, 2007, fails HTML validation with 117 errors, using the W3C's validator.
Furthermore, MySpace is set up so that anyone can customise the layout and colors of their profile page with
virtually no restrictions, provided that the advertisements are not covered up by CSS or using other means. As
MySpace users are usually not skilled web developers, this can cause further problems. Poorly constructed
MySpace profiles could potentially freeze up web browsers due to malformed CSS coding, or as a result of
users placing many high bandwidth objects such as videos, graphics, and Flash in their profiles (sometimes
multiple videos and sound files are automatically played at the same time when a profile loads). PC World cited
this as its main reason for naming MySpace as #1 in its list of twenty-five worst web sites ever.
In addition, new features have been gradually added (see featuritis). This, and the increasing number of
MySpace members, leads to an increase in bandwidth used. This increase in usage often slows down the servers
and may result in a "Server Too Busy" error message for some users who are on at peak hours, "Sorry! an
unexpected error has occurred. This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group," or a variety of any
other error messages throughout the day.
Security
In October 2005, a flaw in MySpace's site design was exploited by 'Samy' to create the first self-propagating
cross-site scripting (XSS) worm. MSNBC has reported that "social-networking sites like MySpace are turning
out to be hotbeds for spyware", with "[i]nfection rates are on the rise, in part thanks to the surging popularity of
social-networking sites like MySpace.com." In addition to this, the customization of user pages currently allows
the injection of certain HTML which can be crafted to form a phishing user profile, thus keeping the
myspace.com domain as the address. More recently, there has been spam on bulletins that has been the result of
phishing.Users find their MySpace homepage with bulletins they didn't post, realizing later they had been
phished. The bulletin consists of an advertisement that provides a link to a fake login screen, tricking people
into typing in their MySpace e-mail and password.
Other security fears regarding profile content itself are also present. For example, the embedding of videos
inherently allows all of the format's abilities and functions to be used on a page. A prime example of this
surfaced in December 2006, when embedded QuickTime videos were shown to contain hyperlinks to JavaScript
files, which would be run simply by a user visiting a 'phished' profile page, or even in some cases by simply
viewing a user's 'about me' elsewhere on the site. Users who entered their login information into a fake login bar
that appeared would also become 'phished', and their account would be used to spam other members, thus
spreading this security problem.
In April 2007, a house in the United Kingdom was wrecked by gatecrashers storming a party after reading an
invite for it on MySpace. The party caused an estimated £20,000-£25,000 worth of damage, forcing the family
to move out after graffiti was sprayed on walls and light fixtures were ripped out. Rachel Bell, the organizer of
the party, claimed that her account was hacked and she only expected a small number of people to turn up. The
resulting situation required several police cars and a dog-handling unit in order to restore peace.
Child safety
The minimum age to register an account on MySpace is 14. Profiles with ages set to 14 or 15 years are
automatically private. Users whose ages are set at 16 or over have the option to restrict their profiles and the
option of allowing certain personal data to be restricted to people other than those on their friends list.
Accessing the full profile of, or messaging someone when their account is set to "private" (or if under sixteen) is
restricted to a MySpace user's direct friends.
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MySpace will delete these profiles if the victim verifies their identity and points out the profile via e-mail.
Recently, MySpace has been the focus of a number of news reports stating that teenagers have found ways
around the restrictions set by MySpace, and have been the target of online predators. In response, MySpace has
given assurances to parents that the website is safe for people of all ages. Beginning in late June 2006, MySpace
users whose ages are set over 18 could no longer be able to add users whose ages are set from 14 to 15 years as
friends unless they already know the user's full name or email address. Some third party Internet safety
companies like Social Shield have launched online communities for parents concerned about their child's safety
on MySpace.
In June 2006, 16-year-old American Katherine Lester flew to the Middle East, to Tel Aviv, Israel, after having
tricked her parents into getting her a passport in order to be with a 20-year-old man she met through MySpace.
U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded the teen to turn around and go home.
In December 2006, MySpace announced new measures to protect children from known sex offenders. Although
precise details were not given they said that "tools" would be implemented to prevent known sex offenders from
the USA creating a MySpace profile.
In February 2007, a U.S. District Judge in Texas dismissed a case when a family sued MySpace for negligence,
fraud and misrepresentation; a girl in the family had been sexually assaulted by a man she met through
MySpace, after she had misrepresented her age as 18 when she was 13. Regarding his dismissal of the case,
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks wrote: "If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not
MySpace."
In July 2007, the company found and deleted 29000 profiles belonging to registered sex offenders.Hardline
anti-pedophile organization Perverted Justice has praised Myspace for its efforts to combat pedophiles using
their service.
In October 2007, a study published in the Journal of Adolescence conducted by Sameer Hinduja (Florida
Atlantic University) and Justin W. Patchin (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) concluded that most
adolescents use MySpace responsibly: "When considered in its proper context, these results indicate that the
problem of personal information disclosure on MySpace may not be as widespread as many assume, and that
the overwhelming majority of adolescents are responsibly using the website," they say.
Social and cultural
Dave Itzkoff, in the June 2006 Playboy magazine, related his experiences of experimentation with membership
in MySpace. Among his other criticisms, one pertains to the distance afforded by the Internet that emboldens
members, such as females who feature photos of themselves in scant clothing on their profile pages or behave in
ways they would not in person, and he indicated that this duplicity undercuts the central design of MySpace,
namely, to bring people together. Itzkoff also referenced the addictive, time-consuming nature of the site,
mentioning that the Playboy Playmate and MySpace member Julie McCullough, who was the first to respond to
his add-friend request, pointedly referred to the site as "cybercrack". Itzkoff argued that MySpace gives many
people access to a member’s life, without giving the time needed to maintain such relationships and that such
relationships do not possess the depth of in-person relationships.
Furthermore, in terms of MySpace's potential for underhanded commercial exploitation, Itzkoff is particularly
critical of the disturbing and fraudulent behavior of people who can contact a member, unsolicited, as when he
was contacted by someone expressing a desire to socialize and date, but whose blog (to which Itzkoff was
directed via subsequent emails) was found to be a solicitation for a series of commercial porn sites. Itzkoff is
similarly critical of the more subtle commercial solicitations on the site, such as the banner ads and links to
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profiles and video clips that turn out to be, for example, commercials for new 20th Century Fox films. He also
observed that MySpace’s much-celebrated music section is heavily weighted in favor of record labels rather
than breakthrough musicians.
In relating criticism from another person, whom Itzkoff called "Judas," he illustrated that, while the goal of
attempting to bring together people who might not otherwise associate with one another in real life may seem
honorable, MySpace inherently violates a social contract only present when people interact face-to-face,
rendering, in his opinion, the website nothing more than a passing fad:
“There will come a moment when, like deer quivering and flicking up their ears toward a noiseless noise in the
woods, the first adopters will suddenly realize they’re spending their time blogging, adding, and gawking at the
same alarming photos as an army of 14-year olds, and quick as deer, they’ll dash to the next trend. And before
you know it, we’ll all follow.”
Politics
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Many political organizations have created Myspace accounts to keep in touch with and
expand their membership base. These range from larger organizations like Greenpeace
and the ACLU to smaller locally focused environmentalist groups and Food Not Bombs
activists.
Several historical political figures (from Napoleon to George Washington to Herbert
Marcuse) have had accounts created to either raise awareness about their role in history
or perhaps sometimes to behave more in jest as if those historical figures were actually
posting messages and adding friends, etc.
Many hopeful 2008 presidential candidates have set up MySpace profiles, presumably in
an effort to snare younger voters. Most profiles feature photos, blogs, videos, and ways
for viewers to get involved with campaigning. MySpace features these politicians'
profiles on its front page in the "Cool New People" section, on what appears to be a
random rotation.
Censorship
Activist group MoveOn.org has criticized MySpace, claiming that the website practices censorship by not
showing anti-media ads, removing fake profiles for high-profile media executives like Rupert Murdoch, and
allegedly attempting to force users away from using third-party flash applications on their profiles.
Stalking
According to Alison Kiss, program director for Security on Campus, social networking websites such as
MySpace and Facebook have made it easier for stalkers who target women on college campuses.
MySpace China
The Chinese version of MySpace, launched in April of 2007, has many censorship-related differences from
other international versions of the service. Discussion forums on topics such as religion and politics are absent,
and a filtering system that prevents the posting of content about Taiwan independence, the Dalai Lama, Falun
Gong, and other "inappropriate topics" has been added. Users are also given the ability to report the
"misconduct" of other users for offenses including "endangering national security, leaking state secrets,
subverting the government, undermining national unity, and spreading rumors or disturbing the social order."
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International sites
Since early 2006, MySpace has offered the option to access the service in different regional versions. The
alternative regional versions present automated content according to locality (e.g. UK users see other UK users
as "Cool New People," and UK oriented events and adverts, etc.), offer local languages other than English, or
accommodate the regional differences in spelling and conventions in the English-speaking world (e.g. United
States: "favorites," mm/dd/yyyy; the rest of the world: "favourites," dd/mm/yyyy).
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