1. Missing from your list is LiveJournal, which has some strong social networking elements in that you can create a web page which consists of your friends latest LJ entries, or set it so that only friends can comment, or that only friends can read your blog. Also, you can create group blogs with the friends feature.

Another edge case would be house swapping web sites: HomeLink at http://www.swapnow.com/, HomeExchange http://homeexchange.com/, and Intervac http://intervac-online.com/. I've been told that they have strong reference and reputation systems in, however, they are all for-fee sites so I can't see all their features.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Christopher Allen

2. This is neat !

I probably know only a handful really - am just confused about Ryze - its supposedly a business networking site - but seems far more social than business.

Is that the case with more ?

If so .. would be interesting to compare and study the 'intended' objective the administrators have against how the network has actually evolved and self-organised. And how its 'positioned' in the minds of the people who make up the community.

This becomes important as the sheer numbers you have collated means there's going to be a "battle for the mind" ala Al Ries and Jack Trout, in the SN area. Where some will succeed and others fail.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Dina

3. Ryze reminds me of a frat house party.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by BobZeeBuilder

4. Hi; a few quick thoughts (followup to private email, but worth posting, I figured):

1. Yes, BuddySpace certainly belongs, since social networking is a large part of what it's all about... but, interestingly, there's no obvious 'niche' for it and similar 'highly synchronous' and 'large scale visualization' tools... *THEREFORE*, a bit of 'iterative refinement' suggests the following modifications to your categories:

2. I suggest adding an additional category for 'Synchronous/RealTime Social Networking', and include all the big name Instant Messengers, plus of course BuddySpace, the general world of Jabber (www.jabber.org), and others like Odigo, which masterfully integrated IM, user-profile/matchmaking/dating capabilities, and collaborative web browsing

3. I would also add an extra category for 'Large-scale Peer-to-Peer and File-Sharing Networks', which is where your Napster, KaZaa, Gnutella, et al would fit in nicely... these have a strong 'shared presence' element including adding people to 'hot lists' based on their music preferences, and it's great to see that 7,875,234 others are online with you right this moment!

4. I would also add a category for 'Massively Multiplayer Online Games' (including RolePlaying, i.e MMORG), such as Everquest, Asheron's Call, etc., which have phenomenal user bases, strong social networking capabilities, 'karma' points, allegiance, etc. .. in many ways these are the Grand-daddies of Social Networking!

5. Another strong category would be 'reputation/karma-based systems', such as Ebay, epinions, Amazon

6. What about a category for emergent democracy and political networking?

7. You ought to have, in effect, a 'Meta-SNS', which would cover 'Commenters', 'Blogging about blogging', and similar, such as SmartMobs, many2many, your own socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com, and many of the popular bloggers like Marc Canter and his circle of friends!

8. Maybe your 'social network sharing & analysis' label should be augmented to be 'social networking sharing, analysis & visualization'... there are many tools that make a big point about being able to visualize networks... not only the obvious ones like BuddySpace and Huminity, but also many to be found on Martin Dodge's excellent Cybergeography.org site.

9. you can't really allow a catchall category called 'social networking software sites', as you have at the moment, because this recursively 'forestalls the evil day', since that category is essentially what your entire list is (or will become), so I would move those individual items off into more specific categories.

Okey doks... hope that's useful!!

Cheers
-Marc

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Marc Eisenstadt

5. As you demanded "constructive feedback ", here you'll find some feed-back:

I would like to let you know that eConozco.com may be in the international clasification, but its main objective is "business network" oriented.
It is a "confidence based site" not a "comunnity based site".

I invite you to have a look on it !

Cheers from Spain

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Asier Lucea

6. Hi. I noticed that this categorization has already been copied in other blogs. Before it spreads too far, I would like to request that FunChain.com be recategorized under "common interest networking sites" because it is about FriendBlog-ging. Socially-networked collaborative blogging, thereby forming a communities of similar interests.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Jason Banico

7. I think some of the sites listed are a little too vague. I wouldnt consider salesforce or classmates networking software/sites. I think only sites that are explicitly based around the idea of using relationships (and mapping them) should be considered. Based on the groupings, you could put most sites on here, such as yahoo, msn, etc. as they allow people to play collaborative games. Does that tag them as a social networking site?

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Jason Biggs

8. Judith, Good stuff. This may be helpful...
https://www.quickbase.com/db/9f72vfgx?a=q&qid=1

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Peter

9. christopher - thanks for the input, i will certainly look at including your recommendations...

dina - i can move ryze... but the name of the service is 'ryze business networking'... (-:

marc - thanks for the excellent input! i will integrate your recommendations...

asier and 'funchain' jason - i will recategorize your services...

jason biggs - thanks for the input, i was conflicted about salesforce but a number of resources i referenced recommended that it is an sns software solution... classmates on the other hand - you don't think folks use these systems to reconnect and perhaps add new/old contacts and use these relationships?

peter - if you go back to my first 100+ post you will see that i reference cynthia's db in that post...

i will be 'on the road' for 2 weeks beginning tomorrow and will not be able to give this project any significant attention until i return on february 18th... thanks again for your input, one and all! i look forward to continuing this categorization conversation...

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by judith

10. saw something like that all. maybe an addition:

www.friendsbay.de

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by huhu

11. saw something like that all. maybe an addition:

www.friendsbay.de

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by huhu

12. Thesquare.com, elitist social network:

About us:

TheSquare is the online network for alumni and students of the world's top colleges and universities.

Founded in 1997, TheSquare is a destination for:

jobs
dating
networking (on- and off-line)
classified and real estate listings
thoughtful commentary and lively debate!


Our tens of thousands of members get the most select listing of jobs available anywhere, access to private events, and exclusive personals -- all while staying in touch with old friends or finding new ones.

Only verified students and alumni of the following schools are eligible for membership:

Amherst College, Barnard College, Berkeley, Brown University, Bryn Mawr College, Caltech, Cambridge University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, INSEAD, Johns Hopkins University, London School of Economics, McGill University, MIT, Mt. Holyoke College, Northwestern University, Oxford University, Princeton University, Radcliffe Institute, Rice University, Smith College, Stanford University, Swarthmore College, Tufts University, UCLA, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, Vassar College, Wellesley College, Williams College, Yale University

Join TheSquare!

For more information, please contact us:

Members (or potential members)
Employers

All trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. Neither TheSquare.com nor SquareDating.com is affiliated with any university.

Design assistance provided by Alex Pineda, http://www.theretina.com.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Derek Lomas

13. Hi! I'm most famous dating critic blogger in JAPAN.
I'm waiting for "japanfriendfinder.com" ;)
Because this domain got by friendfinder Inc.
When I join and reported this blog!!

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by KURI

14. Great online service for buddie-finding: http://www.newintown.de/

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Anton

15. Thanks for the "SNS Picking & Parsing" grouping of SNS sites. It is one of the most complete lists I've seen to date. There's another great site in the San Francisco Bay area called link Silicon Valley (www.linksv.com).

The site has a PEOPLE database with an advanced search feature where you can start your search from 4 specific ares and add filters to narrow your search:
Board Members
Individual Investors
Educational institution of graduation
Company alumni
A great way to network into companies in Silicon Valley.

Thanks, Gene

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Gene Summerville

16. openBC (http://www.openbc.com) is a business networking site based out of Germany but rapidly attracting an international membership base. It's already made it into the top 10,000 on Alexa, putting it way ahead of many of the sites listed here.

Also, Always-On has launched YASNS: http://community.alwayson-network.com/ Just heard about it today, so nothing to say about it yet except to add it to the list.

I'm not sure where your boundaries are, as there are a number of communities where social/business/knowledge networking takes place, but they don't have the ability to publicly record connections between people, but the same could be said of several of the sites on your list already.

So, with that in mind, there's also:
http://www.ewomennetwork.com
http://www.digital-women.com
http://www.ivwcc.com

More as I find / think of them.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Scott Allen

17. This site is great for keeping in touch with your friends - you'll never lose touch again! Please check it out - it's free and super easy to use.

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Pablo

18. http://www.palbook.com

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Pablo

19. Hey also Impersonals www.impersonals.com

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Mike

20. Question: What happens when you cross Hotornot with Friendster with Evite with Match.com.?

Answer: It looks like http://www.dateweek.com/

Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by Christian