Facebook vs. MySpace

As in all channels of media, social networking websites have been in competition for decades, and the two leading social media site, MySpace and Facebook have run their course in the race to become number one.
A year ago, MySpace yielded its position to Facebook, leaving it at second place among social networking sites. Nielson Online PR team deemed Facebook the most visited social media site starting in December 2008, that was the year that Facebook took dominance over Myspace.
Though MySpace was the first to penetrate the global market, Facebook blew it out of the water by launching its platform in different countries and as a result becoming the leading international social networking site.
It's obvious that Facebook is more committed to its users, considering how many language translations they offer now. (www.standard.com)
Essentially, Facebook is better better because of its platform. It is more user-friendly as it adapts to its audience. And, it's innovative, always updating itself with new applications.
Facebook was originally exclusive to college students, which is why it's the most used social media site among that age group-it's what they are used to, so everybody uses it. Some reasons why college students' loyalty is to Facebook: newtorking among schools, less viruses and spam, popularity, organization, and privacy.
So, it should be no shock that Facebook takes the prize.

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The Scoop on Blogging

Blogging. Who does it? It is certainly not a central topic for college students. One would think that blogging would be the perfect forum for college students to express themselves and cultivate personal interest, but according to Pew Internet surveys, a decline in blogging among teens and young adults is shown. Here are some of the statistics Pew Internet found about the usage of social media sites relating to young adults:

• 8% Twitter



• 73% Facebook



• 48 % MySpace



• 14% LinkedIn

There are often shifts in social network usage among different age groups. The amount of people using twitter shows that it must not bee too popular with the college age group; this is also the same for blogging. The statistics show that blogging has not been much of a sensation as other social media sites are.

So, why aren't more students blogging? Generation Y operates on status updates and texting. Blogging actually requires writing full sentences, which takes time and effort. Essentially, blogging is a great in developing community with related interests and hobbies, but it does not connect people like Facebook and MySpace. This highly-social generation wants news and gossip, and wants it immediately without confusion and difficulty. Blogging may be ideal for our parents, but for now, we'll stick with our microblogging.

What's all the Buzz about?

A new social networking program was launched this week by Google called Buzz. this new platform takes social media to a whole new dimension, encompassing all the features of other social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. If Google's new Buzz is successful with users, it could be the next big move since Facebook.

Ryan Baur from pcworld.com believes that Google has surpassed Facebook's ability to connect with others over the internet, with features like Picasa, YouTube, The calendar app and Gmail. "Google has been doing all of this for longer than Facebook-and arguably better-just in a decentralized way", Baur says.

Additional features of Buzz include a personal profile, sharing links and images, status updates and chat. And, of course, how would Buzz surpass Twitter without the famous "@" symbol when referencing people. Another fairly-new app is Google's GPS that can detect where a person is and allows one to "gootag" a specific location for friends to see. All of this can be accessed from Google's home page.

Buzz allows the user to choose his own privacy settings-one that can make some features private while keeping others public. In order to be a "Buzzer", you must have a Gmail account, but critics of Buzz say that it won't be too long until that changes.

However, Buzz is not without fault; it may be user-controlled, but many feel it is not so user-friendly. Harry McCracken from pcworld.com says much feedback has been negative concerning its privacy settings. "To its credit, Google has responded swiftly to complaints: It's already tweaked Buzz to make it more obvious what information their service is making public, and to help you crank up the privacy settings", McCracken says. In addition, many users find Buzz confusing. Synthesizing multiple social networking channels into one site cannot be an easy task; it's bound to be flawed.

If Google can world out its kinks and get a positive response from its users, this might be the next big thing in the social media world. So, the question for now is: To Buzz or not to Buzz? Time will tell.

Social Networking - it's the buzz of the decade. It's a social revolution, and college students are at the center of this social media explosion. I will discuss how college students are utilizing social networking, the fads that develop and what to look for in the future. Hold on tight, because we are about to jump on the social networking revolution roller-coaster!