The article distributed by Knowledge at Penn’s Wharton School, which investigates the popularity of these social networks, comparing them to a fad or fashion that will never last. The article discusses how users of these sites are always looking for the next best one, bouncing from site to site. It focuses a lot on the popularity of these sites, and marketing skeams that exist within them. A main concern discussed is the issue of becoming too popular, as these ideas or networks tend to fade as a result. The article discussed the strategy of making it not as accessible, therefore, making it more exclusive. Examples given were Diesel jeans, and how they limited the number of outlets at which they were sold and in terms of networking on Facebook, keeping it mainly within the college age range. An important idea brought up, as social networks “seem to operate best when they strike a balance between heterogeneity, which provides large numbers of members, and selectivity, which keeps the hordes focused and engaged in the site.” This makes a direct correlation to these sites keeping up with technology, keeping their users happy and providing the most efficient site as possible. The use of cell phones is beginning to play a bigger role in the access of these sites, allowing users to gain internet access on their phone’s 24/7, checking their Facebook or MySpace. The popularity of these sites has spurred on the demand for higher security protecting some of this private information, allowing their users to feel protected. In the end, Bell, feels large social networking sites such as Ebay and Facebook are here to stay, as they’ve made such a large mark in the internet world and people love the ability to connect in such an easy manner.

This article covers a lot of topics that we have discussed in class earlier this semester as well as information recently. The older material has to do more with the connections made between networks and friends, while some of the newer information relates to web page rankings. A lot of these online friend-finding networks are similar to the connections between nodes that we talked about in class, in that connections between nodes can connect two otherwise separated networks. An example of this could be a mutual friend attending another college, allowing people to make links to outside their own college network. In the article it discusses how Facebook provides connections to those individuals within the network. By association within this network, people can become friends with other people or nodes by simply just searching within the Facebook network. However, the idea of Facebook remaining unique and limiting it’s users is a direct correlation to how within this network people cannot connect to friends in other separate networks like MySpace. The information cannot be transferred between these two competing networks.

In terms of newer information that we have covered in class, these social networking sites relate to web page ranking and using hub pages. These hub pages are important as they allow an individual to determine the best sources for searches. Sites like Facebook and MySpace have been forced to step up their security and privacy settings as a result of its popularity and threat of identity theft. If these networks were allowed to make available all information within these social networks, then it could be seen by anyone anywhere. These websites would potentially receive the highest social network ranking, appearing before all other ones in any search by a search engine. Because of the privacy issue, fortunately this is not an issue, a main reason why Facebook and MySpace have maintained their reputations. A social networking site that turned up personal information off of a random search is surely one that will not be successful. Social networking sites are forced to keep up with technological improvements and must maintain the highest degree of integrity so as to not lose their reputation on the internet network.

Knowledge at Wharton. May 3, 2006.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1463&CFID=67142463&CFTOKEN=87637694&jsessionid=9a30ced5978e7c625c70