The rise in social networking and web+2.0" rel="tag">web 2.0 has created a fervent buzz among internet users and has kept them scrambling to keep up with newer, more exciting features. Among the areas to be covered in this article are Facebook, blogging sites, YouTube, privacy, assumptions, perspectives, and using social networking’s power for good.

Social networking over the Internet among teenagers is more than just a passing fad. I suspect that it will grow in popularity as more and more households go on-line.

Facebook now brings together 66 million online users. While many of these users are students and recent graduates, users 35 years old and older (myself included) represent more than half of Facebook’s daily visitors and are now the network’s most rapidly growing demographic.

Though security measures, such as minimum age limits on MySpace and valid college email addresses on Facebook.com, have been set in place, these are certainly not foolproof. MySpace recently made national headlines when a Michigan 16-year-old was detained in Jordan while on her way to Israel to meet a man she met on the website; the story was followed on television by several Dr. Phil shows. The girl has since been returned to the United States.

In a separate case, a 14-year-old girl from Austin, Texas is suing MySpace for $30 million, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man she met on the site.

Apparently, some people believe that, if they’ve done nothing wrong, then they have nothing to hide. If you share this view, consider the following:

When you open a credit card account, start a new mobile phone contract or move your electricity billing online, you have to present some personal information to the company so they can authenticate you later. Traditionally, this would be your date of birth and your mother’s maiden name, but now popular alternatives include your favorite food, a pet’s name or even a customized question and answer.

Scan through your Facebook profile and see if you (and therefore anyone else) could answer basic questions about you. If so, a potential thief has access to your security answers and it’s time to edit your profile and maybe, call your bank!

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s 23 year-old CEO has openly explained that Facebook makes a lot of use of memcache to get better performance and that they’ve built a lot of custom code for MySQL, which they’ve donated back to the community, and why he’s seen as one of the most interesting business leaders of our time.

Talking about how his management team works, how he’s working to keep a unique culture, and has explained in detail what’s coming this year in Facebook.

Speaking of which, Facebook has recently come to demand that you take an extra three minutes and get a Yahoo Mail or AOL mail address. This would seem to be a clear indication that the company is “pruning its subscribers” in anticipation of an acquisition in the next 2-3 quarters. After all, Facebook has an economic incentive to publish ever more data about its users.

So, while Zuckerberg may well rigidly adhere to the highest code of responsibility to the internet community his work fostered, some would still argue that, some day, all the data Facebook has collected will be owned by a Murdoch, and all the people who use this site will likewise be owned. The direct marketing fallout is potentially just a mere annoyance compared to the more grave implications attending thereto (did someone say “Patriot Act”?)

Apparently, what happens on Facebook doesn’t stay on Facebook.

Tags: sprint, smartphone, facebook, obama, nokia

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