Social networking sites continue to become more and more fashionable. There is something about this kind of website that has made them rapidly increase in popularity and driven millions of users and visitors who like socializing, love icons or avatars, and are willing to share photos, stories, and facts of their lives.

Once upon a time, actually in 1995, the first social network known as Classmates was created, whose goal was and still is to help find former school mates. Presently, the site has over 40 million members all around the world. Then, Friendster showed up (now with more than 29 million members) and others alike, all promoting friends to stay in touch. Then, one by one, grouped around diverse interests, a lot of ?social networking? sites have been launched, more or less successfully, culminating with MySpace competing shoulder to shoulder with Google in terms of traffic range and page access frequency.

But one thing is clear: during the past ten years, social networking has become a worldwide phenomenon. Social networking can be envisaged as a map of the relationships between individuals, connected through various social familiarities and based on common interests and purposes. Consequently, many virtual communities have been created for a multitude of purposes: to make new friends or find a date, to build a bridge for those who want to share photos or videos, to bring closer student communities, book lovers or business people from around the world, to share new music by music lovers or icons by those who love icons.

For somebody who uses the internet on a regular basis, it is practically impossible not to have heard of websites like FriendFinder, MySpace, Classmates or Yahoo! 360. Associations and trade organizations have created great places for individuals to meet, improve themselves and their businesses. But there are also newcomers to this market, such as iconisland.com, a website that allows its users to create their own ?island? (homepage) and have it customised with different themes displaying the static or animated icons which they choose. There is also a MySpace dedicated area for those who love icons. What do all these sites have in common? The wire of social networking, acting as a giant magnet for more and more users and viewers.

Despite the varying features and target audiences of the web-based services labeled as ?social networking? sites, they all have in common the fact that they are easy to use and do not require advanced knowledge of the internet. More than that, most of them are free to join and after signing up, each user has the possibility to create a "profile" page, which typically has a picture of the user, or a particular icon (for those who love icons), along with some personal information. Then, users link their profile page to the profiles of their "friends," so that each user's page displays that individual's network.

Another thing that made social networking sites so popular is the fact that they come in a wide range of formats. Giants like Yahoo!360 and MySpace can afford to host a wide variety of topics, which means that just about anyone can join in. But there are other social networking sites dedicated to smaller, special interests groups, with a focus on a particular hobby, religion, political issues. There are also groups on MySpace that are intended for swingers and gays. Therefore, social networking sites can be a fun and easy way to meet people online, but it is important to exercise a little common sense.

What is the future of the social networks? Bright and shiny, experts might say, with a propensity to grant more and more freedom for users. If we take a look at the evolution of social networking sites, we notice that users have gradually gained the ability to share more and more information within their friends? network. Users have been quick to take full advantage of this ability. Messaging, comments to pictures, personal profiles, avatars, love icons, personalised pages, or voting/rating systems, all these are only some of the features that have been added on social networking sites. Clearly, the tendency is to grant users a higher degree of self-determination and control. Now you can offer and receive Karma online, you can join groups with common interests and you can fight against other groups for reputation. You can even get a great job based on your reputation inside a community! It seems that there is no end in sight for the growth of the social networking phenomenon.