New social networks for communication. Social networks (social networks)
With the spread of the Internet, there are more and more questions from various users that affect social media, - what is it and how they differ from other sites. The most correct answer to them would be to define such networks as platforms for building between people who share certain interests, activities, or have real connections outside the Internet. As a rule, the functionality of a social network is to provide each user with his personal profile, the ability to create links with other accounts, as well as a number of additional services.
Thus, social networks on the Internet are sites that provide services that allow people to create a public profile, add a list of users with whom they can share various information and keep in touch. Most of these resources have a means of user interaction through, for example, instant messaging.
Social networks - what is it today?
These sites are now diversified and include new information and communication tools such as photo/video sharing and blogging. In addition, on the basis of many social networks there are so-called Internet communities that unite people according to narrower interests and preferences. Regardless of the original purpose, social networks allow users to exchange ideas, photos, messages, activities, events, connect with different people of interest, and so on.
What is their main difference?
Basically, these services unite people according to various classifying criteria - former schools, Universities, places of work, hobbies and so on. Each country has the most popular social network, the formations in which (groups, publics, communities) are unique in accordance with local traditions. In addition, some services have spread around the world and have become popular among users in most countries (including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.).
History of social networks
To fully answer the question "social networks - what is it?", you need to familiarize yourself with the history of their appearance. Initially, to ensure communication between network users, such services as Usenet, ARPANET, mailing lists and bulletin boards were introduced. Many prototype social networking features have been present in online services such as America Online, Prodigy, CompuServe, ChatNet, and a few others.
More modern-day services began to appear on the World Wide Web as generic online communities like Theglobe.com (in 1995), Geocities (1994), and Tripod.com (1995). Many of these early resources focused on bringing people together and communicating through chats, and encouraged users to share information and ideas through personal pages, providing easy-to-use publishing tools and free or low-cost hosting. Subsequently, social networks appeared on the Internet, taking a different approach, connecting people through email and messaging. The first such service in the world was Classmates.com.
Most up-to-date services
In the late 1990s, user profiles became the centerpiece of social media, allowing users to build "friend" lists and search for other users with similar interests. New operating principles for these services were developed in the late 1990s, and sites began to try to promote a better user experience. This new generation of social media flourished with the advent of SixDegrees.com in 1997, followed by Makeoutclub (2000) and Friendster (2002), and soon became part of the Internet mainstream. Friendster was followed by MySpace and LinkedIn (a social network for workers). Facebook was launched in 2004. It soon became the largest social network in the world.
What services are the most popular today?
Facebook is a social networking site headquartered in the US, in Menlo Park, California. As mentioned above, this website was launched in 2004 along with its college dorm roommates. The founders initially limited the site's visitors to only Harvard students, but later made it available to many other students. Since 2006, this project has become available to everyone who has reached the age of 13.
After registering on the site, users can create a profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages, make status updates, add photos, share videos, and receive notifications from friends. In addition, users can join interest groups and categorize their friends in lists, such as "People from work" or "Close friends". Facebook has over 1.44 billion active users as of March 2015.
Blogs and business website
Twitter is an online service that allows users to send and read short 140-character messages called tweets. Registered users can read and write tweets, unregistered users can only read. Users access Twitter through a website interface, SMS, or mobile device app. Office of Twitter Inc. based in San Francisco and has over 25 branches worldwide. In May 2015, Twitter had over 500 million users, of which over 302 million are active.
LinkedIn is a business-oriented service. In other words, employees and employers. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional communication. In 2006, LinkedIn was expanded to 20 million members. As of June 2013, LinkedIn reported over 259 million users in over 200 countries.
The most famous social networks in Russia
VK (originally VKontakte) is Russia's largest social network. It is available in several languages, but is especially popular among Russian-speaking users, in particular, in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Like other similar social and entertainment networks, VKontakte allows users to send messages to each other publicly or privately, create groups, pages and events, share images, audio and video, and play browser-based games. As of November 2014, the service had 280 million accounts.
Odnoklassniki (or OK.ru) is a site for finding former classmates and old friends. It is popular in Russia and other former Soviet republics. The site currently claims to have over 200 million registered users and 45 million daily unique visitors. This resource has been around for eight years.
Livejournal
Forecast and development
This article gave a detailed answer to the following question: "Social networks - what is it?". Currently, there are new and new resources similar to those listed above, but every year it is becoming more and more difficult for them to withstand competition and become leaders.
A social network (social network) is a service on the Internet (website, applications) for creating and maintaining connections between people, as well as for consuming information, games. Social networks are used in friendly communication, work, study, love - in almost all moments of life.
Exists a large number of social networks, but only a few are truly popular. They have a lot common features. A social network usually consists of people (users - you and me) and communities (groups, publics). People join communities based on their interests. With other people, you can communicate one-on-one, or you can - in a group conversation. Important elements social networks is adding people “as friends”, uploading photos and videos, your thoughts, creating your image. Events, information from all your friends and communities are combined into a "feed" that you watch and read.
In contact with
Also called "VK", "VK.com". The most popular social network in Russia and CIS countries. You can search for people by name, surname, place of study and work, hobbies. There are groups that you can join (and create your own), listen to music, watch movies online. Initially, it was a student social network, but then it quickly became popular among a wide audience. About 65 million visitors per day.
We talk more about VKontakte, registration in it and entering the site here:
Classmates
It is the second most popular social network. It is believed that its active users are older than the users of VKontakte. It was originally intended to search for classmates, classmates, relatives, old friends and communicate with them. In Odnoklassniki, as well as VKontakte, you can listen to music, watch movies and TV shows. In general, this is an entertainment social network. Odnoklassniki has about 44 million visitors per day.
Everything about Odnoklassniki, how to get there and what to do - here:
For more information about Facebook (and how to deal with it), see here:
My world
Moi Mir is part of Mail.ru, the "national social network". In terms of the number of active users, Moi Mir comes after VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. It has all the traditional elements of a social network - news feed, photos, videos, messages. There are many people from the regions in My World. An important part of the social network is games.
Acquaintance
Dating sites are also, as a rule, social networks where people find each other, communicate, make friends, post photos, fall in love. Large free dating sites that can be safely recommended are Megakiss and Photo Country.
How to find a person on a social network?
We have a built-in search for people on the VHOD.RU start page, which is exactly what they are looking for in social networks. More about this here:
How do social networks influence us?
We have a huge opportunity for communication, which was not there before. Now we can find those who have been lost or not seen for a long time. Communication with friends has moved to social networks. When everyone has so little free time, it is possible to “virtually” meet and chat on social networks – even with those who are far away.
We find out through social media last news, follow what is happening with friends, watch movies and TV shows. True, social networks can bring not only joy, but also disappointment and irritation. Therefore, you need to clearly understand how and why you use social networks and whether you depend on them.
- On social media, we trust people too much. We rely on what others write, what they share with us, without checking whether it is actually true
- We envy. Yes, yes: when people brag about successes, travels, new acquaintances, it may seem that their life is more eventful. But this is an illusion – on social networks, people tend to embellish themselves.
- In social networks, we behave differently than in real life. When people communicate at a distance, they become more courageous, relaxed, and therefore in social networks they often declare and discuss what they ordinary life are silent.
- We depend on people's reactions. When we get used to approval, "likes", in the future we may be more hurt by disagreement or criticism.
- Scientists cannot say whether social networks are useful or harmful. It all depends on how we use them. It is necessary to strike a balance between virtual ("apparent") and real life.
The number of social media users is growing exponentially. Some services are more popular than others. However, everything changes, and it is quite possible that while you are studying this rating, some previously unknown social network will break into the lead.
Facebook with the number of accounts exceeding 1.2 billion. The network, founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, has been holding the first place in the world TOPs since its inception.
Google+, whose number of users is approaching the 600 million mark. The social network, founded in 2001 by Google, moves up and down the rankings, however, it is consistently among the top ten most successful projects. 
Twitter with half a billion users. The presence of a mini-blog in this social network has become a real trend, because the most influential people on the planet have Twitter accounts.
Sina Weibo with over 500 million accounts. This is perhaps the only social network from our rating that does not have a Russian-language interface. However, she does not need this, since she is designed for friendly residents of the Middle Kingdom who want to communicate exclusively with each other and have been successfully doing this since 2009. 
In contact with is a social network created in Russia in 2006 and is one of the most successful domestic projects to date. The number of VKontakte users is rapidly approaching the mark of 300 million, which means that the social network is used not only in our country.
Badoo with almost 230 million followers is an international dating site with a full set of social networking features. 
Tumblr- a social network for those who like to blog, as well as read and comment on the blogs of other users. Created in 2007, this social network today has about 220 million users. 
Classmates- Another notorious Russian project that has become a world leader. Since 2006, the number of Odnoklassniki users has increased from 0 to 210 million people.
Instagram is a social network that went out into the world in 2010 and quickly moved to the top of the rankings thanks to the ability to share photos and videos with many users. 
pinterest is a social network whose 200 million users can share with each other a wide variety of ideas, from innovative business solutions to recipes for a festive cake. 
flickr. Almost 70 million users of this social network share a huge number of photos every day. 
myspace, created in 2003 has about 50 million accounts and is a social network in its classical form. Exchange of messages, opinions, photo and video materials, dating, a blog platform, in a word, everything that is required for a pleasant pastime.
Meet Up- a social network, the purpose of which is to unite people into groups for real communication. More than 40 million users have found friends of interest here and have a great time with them without the Internet. 
Tagged. Almost 40 million users of this social network can get acquainted and communicate with each other.
Askfm- a place where you can get an answer to any question, because from more than 38 million answers you can definitely choose the right one. 
ClassMates- An English-language prototype of Russian Odnoklassniki, created back in 1995, but did not achieve the same impressive results. The audience of the project is about 15 million people. 
Orkut- another project from Google, which did not become a hit in the US and Europe, but is very popular among residents Latin America, India and several other countries. Currently, the project is closed and rebased on the Hello social network platform.
Social networks have become an integral part of life modern man. Every day, billions of people around the world visit their pages on social networks, exchanging gigabytes of information, communicating, reading the news. Gradually, social networks have grown from ordinary sites with people's profiles and the ability to exchange messages, into huge media platforms, endless storages of photos, videos, and music content. Now social networks are used by people not only to communicate and exchange information, but also to do business, find jobs and employees, purchase and sell services and goods, and, of course, advertise and promote a business. With every year and every step of scientific progress, social networks are increasingly integrated into our lives. We use them at home computers, from workplaces, on the go - using applications on mobile devices. In today's article, we will discuss what social networks are, what direction, which of them are the most popular in Russia all over the world.
What are social networks
In addition to the well-known ones, there are also very highly specialized social networks, for example, dedicated to some type of activity, hobbies or social status. Travelers, hairdressers, cat or dog lovers, mothers, students and even theater workers have their own social networks. Sites dedicated to finding a soul mate and creating a family stand apart - there are a great many of them in every country. Recently, the geo-social direction has become fashionable, which led to the creation of the Foursqare network, where users could not only mark their location, but also leave short descriptions, hints and reviews about visited places by adding your photos. Let's briefly get acquainted with the list of popular various Russian social networks.
List of popular Russian social networks for communication
Vkontakte.ru is the most visited social network for finding friends, classmates and classmates in Russia and the CIS, created by Pavel Durov in 2006. Previously, registration was for everyone, but recently it has been closed and is possible only for those who have received an invitation from an already registered user.
Odnoklassniki.ru - A very popular network in Russia and the CIS for finding old friends and former classmates, which allows you to stay in touch even after years and despite the distance. In order to register in it, you will need to specify the telephone number.
My world from Mail.ru is a popular Russian network from Mail.ru, which is distinguished by the ability to install the so-called fast messenger for instant messaging, somewhat similar to the previously popular ICQ.
RuSpace is the Russian analogue of the very popular American MySpace in the world.
Moi Krug is a specialized social network created to search for work and professional personnel, the first in the Russian Internet space. Founded in 2005 by a group of recent graduates from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow State University and the New Economic School. Initially, the resource was conceived as a site for finding classmates, classmates, and was later redesigned. In March 2007, the service was bought by Yandex; now it is one of the Yandex services and continues its development under his tutelage.
Companions.ru - search for associates and like-minded people, people who are close to you in spirit and ideas. Here you can comment on any issues of interest and get interesting experience communication on the most pressing topics.
Facultet.ru - as the name implies, a site for students.
Gamesport.ru is for gamers of all stripes. If the main thing for you is not just communication and some personal data, but the gaming industry and teammates by their nicknames and hobbies, this site has it all.
Gosu is another gaming-focused site moderated primarily by the users themselves. Lots of unique content generated directly by users.
Small World is a search engine that allows you to restore long-lost contacts.
Rambler Planet is another Russian site. Blogs, communication, videos and other usefulness.
List of popular foreign social networks
Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard University roommates Dustin Moskowitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes. Initially, only Harvard students had access to it, but gradually access was opened to students of other universities, and then to everyone aged 16 and over who had email. Included in the top 5 most visited sites in the world with more than a billion users per month. Thanks to his brainchild, Mark Zuckerberg at the age of 23 became the youngest billionaire in the world.
Classmates is considered the first social network in the world. Founded by Randy Konrads in 1995. It functions to this day, being one of the most popular in the US and Canada. Initially, the site did not provide for the possibility of creating personal profiles; it was possible to contact classmates only through educational institution. Later, such an opportunity was added, as well as the ability to use this site for residents of some European countries such as France and Germany.
MySpace - literally translated as "My space". Social network founded in 2003. For a long time it was the most popular in the US, but over time it was supplanted by Facebook. After the emancipation of Facebook, it rapidly lost users and popularity until 2011, when a very popular singer in the United States Justin Timberlake declared his desire to support and revive the once popular site. This led to a surge in registrations and visits to MySpace. If before Justin's registration, registrations fell to zero, then after his announcement, the number of registrations per day reached a million people - both new users appeared and old ones began to re-register. There is interest in it to this day, the head office is located in Beverly Hills, USA.
LiveJournal - literally "Live Journal" (LJ), the first site with detailed user profiles and mass hosting of blogs, which became popular in Russia. Founded in 1999 by American student Brad Fitzpatrick, and since LiveJournal data servers are located in the United States, it is subject to local laws. The site has a so-called "Conflict Commission", which has the right to block a blog if it violates the law. After the scandal with the blocking of Artemy Lebedev's blog in 2009, the conflict commission introduced the practice of blocking individual posts rather than entire magazines. In addition to the ability to read online diaries of bloggers, LiveJournal has the ability to comment on other people's blogs, communicate in communities.
Twitter is a social network where it is possible to exchange short messages publicly using a web interface. The publication of short messages in the form of blogs is called "Microblogging". Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey in 2006, quickly gained popularity and became a frequently visited and profitable site. On this moment about 200 million people leave their tweets (short messages, statuses) on the site every day, and the traffic exceeds 400 million.
This is what it looks like far from full list social networks popular in Russia and abroad, visited daily not by millions, but by billions of people all over the world.
