Social networking sites have become interesting virtual representations of social networks in real life. The traditional uses of these websites have ranged from casual interactions between the members to finding a new career path by finding out about new job opportunities. More recently the uses of such networking sites have exploded and many new functions have originated. In the United Kingdom, the Greater Manchester Police force has decided to employ Facebook as tool to help solve crime. This police department has created a Facebook application that allows uses to report crimes or information to solve cases from the comfort of a website that they already regularly visit. The idea is that this will be much more effective than the traditional method of calling into the police department to give information.

The usage of Facebook by police departments relates interestingly to the idea of six degrees of separation and how in such a connected network, information related to a crime can be compiled from people that are closely connected to the source of the crime. Since the network inevitably contains people that are connected in some way, it is likely that useful information can be garnered that is useful in crime solving. Also, by embedding such a tool into a daily-used website, people are more likely to contribute to the information pool.

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