Spotlight: Hi5

Hi5.com

This network was pretty average, allowing users to create a profile, post pictures, comments, etc., etc.  you know the drill.

The layout was also pretty plain; white background, black and blue text, but spiced up a bit with all the game and quiz taking options.

Aside from all this boring, usual stuff though, I did find some unique features.

This network felt more childish to me than the other networks I came across, mostly because of the features.  For example, for some features you needed to have a certain number of coins, and I found that was one of the main things on your profile; How many coins you have. 

Well I had 0, being new to the site, which was no fun.  I learned that you can buy coins, or play games, or 'download' certain applications to gain more coins. 

The other thing that made the site feel immature was the huge game features on it.  It almost felt like more of a gaming network than social network (but maybe that's because I had no friends to be social with). 

Making an 'Avatar' for yourself was a main option as soon as you created your profile, but I didn't find that many people actually created an Avatar when I was browsing for friends. 

After requesting a few random people to be friends, I logged on an hour later and got really excited because it said I had 11 Friend Suggestions.   Thinking this was like friend requests, I thought these people wanted to be my friend, so I selected add friend for all of them.  However, I found out it was actually just a suggestion.  Hi5 was saying since you want to be Hanna's friend then do you want to add Mark as a friend too? Needless to say, I was very disappointed after figuring this out.

One thing I noticed, this site had the most diverse users, with the exception of Skyrock, that I have seen yet.  It seemed like people from a number of countries were on this network rather than focused in one part of the world.

This could be a result of the Google Translation feature on every page.  This was awesome for me because if I stumbled across a profile or page that was in another language, I hit the google translation button it reloaded the page in English for me!

 Before the translation

Give this button a push

And Voila (no pun intended)

So it doesn't translate exact, but not everyone is perfect!  It works well enough to get an idea of what they're saying.

 Giving 'fives' to friends was something I could related to with the Facebook 'poke' feature, but other than that, this site had an overwhelming amount of games and restrictions because of my zero coins, broke, balance and lack of friends once again. 

Spotlight: Tuenti

Tuenti in Spain

The name comes from "tu enti[dad]," meaning "your entity."

I tried to create an account on the social network Tuenti, the most popular network in Spain.  However, this exclusive network is invitation only to join. 

After researching reviews about the site, since I was unable to actually see it, I found it is fairly basic, allowing users to create profile and do what most social networks allow users to do. 

One unique feature I have not seen yet is that it has no advertisements. 

The Social Network: Mark Zuckerberg

I found it only appropriate not only to see the movie, The Social Network, but also write about it here, on my blog that highlights social networks. 

The movie was fantastic and hilarious. I recommend it to everyone.  It tells the story of the creation of Facebook, the revolutionary social media.  Despite the seriousness of the two law suits Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, finds himself involved in his hilarious character alone keeps the audience rolling with laughter.

This approach seems only appropriate seeing that the primary audience is most likely young adults who use Facebook.

The process of how each piece of Facebook was added and put together, whether accurate or not, was interesting in that it was personally connected to something in Zuckerbergs own life.  For example, the relationship status was created because of an annoying friend who kept bugging Mark about whether a girl in his class was single or not.  Now on Facebook, people can check a relationship status to see if someone is single or not.

As Facebook continues to grow and change we will see what changes Mark Zuckerberg brings to the table, keeping Facebook as the number one social network in the US, and many other countries around the world. 

Spotlight: More on Bebo

Who visited my profile? 

I clicked on this link on my Bebo account and a map of the world appeared with little marks in the UK and in Australia. I had 3 views! Most likely my new friend from Australia and two friends from the U.K.

This feature tells you how many people have viewed your profile and where they viewed it at, and I really love it.  I mean, with only 3 views, my profile doesn't seem to be going viral around the world, however, if this was my real profile and I had friends on Bebo it would be really cool to see who is creeping on me and where they are from.

With this feature, you can turn it on, off, or make it anonymous.  If it is on, you can see the location and profile of who visited you, but then your name and location will show up on others maps when you visit their profile.  If it is anonymous, only the location is shown, and if it is off then no information is shared.

Facebook should definitely get this feature.

   

Spotlight: Bebo in the U.K.

I am offically a 'Beboer'. 

When I researched Bebo.com I found it was very popular in the U.K. as well as Ireland. 

It was a pretty basic, what you would expect, social network site, but had a cool, funky feel to it.  While personalization was a major feature, interactivity with others was not. 

I worried I would never make a friend on this site, becuase it was impossible to even find a friend unless you knew the first and last name of someone on the site.  I of course, did not, since all of my friends are on Facebook, however I found a way around it. 

I typed in a couple of names that were friends names or would most likely be a common name.  For example, Tim Jones.  In doing this a couple of people came up and I friended them all hoping someone, anyone would be my friend.  I did this with a couple of names.

You could say this network went overboard with privacy settings, and perhaps that is desirable for many people, but for my purpose of exploring social networks it makes it really damn hard.

Upon looking at reviews of Bebo, I found they have some of the highest ratings in security and that the default setting for profiles is private. 

All of this didn't stop me in making a friend though! Tim Jones, a  fireman from Australia informed me that Bebo is also very popular in Australia and New Zeland!  Unfortunatley, as soon as we got talking Tim had to leave to go "surfing with his mates" but hopefully I will hear from my new friend again soon. 

Another girl I friended, Sarah Henry, who accepted my request, claimed to be 21 on her profile but in reality was only 16 years old.  Although we didn't talk, she had a lot of drama in her life from the looks of her comments page.  One of her friends was "moving to the States to live with her baby's daddy" and although she and her best friend were in a huge fight she, "STILL LOVES HER LIKE A SISTER".    

Below you can see my profile, with the timeline.  This unique feature shows all my activity on bebo in an interactive timeline.  More on Bebo later, hopefully with some converstion from Tim and juicy drama from Sarah.

Facebook is home

I have decided to take a break from the spotlight for this post. 

The first reason is that I just created four new accounts on sites that are popular in Brazil, Spain, Japan, etc. that you will be hearing about in the near future.  However, I want to really get to know how these sites work first, and hopefully talk to some people who use the sites.

The second reason is because I have come to realize why Facebook is so popular in the US and why QQ is for China, etc. etc.

Now maybe this is obvious, but in making all these pages on new networks, and struggling with making friends who will actually talk to me and not just accept my request to be friends, I truly understand why everyone is on Facebook. 

Who wants to make an account on a foreign site such as Hyves, the popular site in the Netherlands, only to find that you cannot do anything on the site because you have no friends, and cannot make any friends because of privacy issues or language barriers?  Moreover, if none of your friends are on the network, then how would you stay connected to what’s going on in your social life? Who would you creep on??

I am not at all criticizing the privacy settings on these sites, personally I have my own Facebook privacy settings very strict, but it really does limit what you can do if you don't have any friends on the network already.
And personally, I love making these new accounts, and will continue to do so and search for friends willing to talk.  It is a nice change from Facebook, which is sometimes a bit annoying when you read everything that everyone you know is doing at every second of everyday.

It's like a vacation away from home to visit another country.

Spotlight: VK in Russia

Its a hard life trying to find friends on this network, road blocks like privacy and unwillingness be friends with a random person set me back in my attempt to make contact. I added several people as my friend, hoping to find someone willing to talk to me but after having no success with finding friends I was about to give up.  

However, a week after making the profile I finally had my first friend!  Natalya-Vanilla Sky-Vishnevskaya. 

On Natalya's page she had over 8,000 friends, her music likes included Kesha, Rihanna, Britney Spears ( Spelt as 'Spiars'), and tons of posts from friends (all in Russian).  Her profile shared her husbands name, where she worked, and contact information.  I have attempted to talk to my new friend, however no response so far. 

Perhaps I will have better luck with the next network.