By: Sanjay Verma
Launched in June 2011 by founder Vic Gundotra, Google+ aimed to compete with Facebook. It offered features like news feeds, photo albums, and groups. Google+ stood out with its Hangouts video chat but eventually ceased operation after some revamps.
WhatsApp, founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum in January 2009, is a Meta-owned instant messaging and voice-over-IP service. It remains active and allows users to exchange various types of content using their mobile phone numbers.
Reddit, founded in June 2005, is an active content-rating site with upvotes influencing post visibility. Communities are moderated by non-Reddit staff, and early versions had only "interesting" or "boring" reactions, not today's upvotes and comments.
Yahoo! 360°, a social networking platform introduced in March 2005 by Yahoo, offered features like personal websites, photo sharing, blogs, and friend updates. However, it was shut down in July 2009 due to low popularity in the US.
Founded in February 2005, YouTube is an online video-sharing platform acquired by Google in November 2006 for $1.65 billion. Users can upload, view, and share videos, but the platform has faced challenges due to its massive traffic and copyright issues.
Launched in 2005, Bebo is a social networking site where users create free profiles, connect with friends, and share content. It reached over 40 million members by 2008 and was later acquired by AOL.
Hi5, founded by Ramu Yalamanchi in 2003, turned profitable in a year and gained popularity globally, ranking second to MySpace in 2007. Owned by The Meet Group, it connects people for various social interactions.
Founded in 2004 by Harvard students including Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, part of Meta Platforms, has three billion global members, half daily. It offers Timeline for posting, Status updates, and the News Feed for friend updates.
Founded in January 2004 by Orkut Büyükkökten and owned by Google, Orkut was a social networking site. Google Brazil took over its management in 2008 due to legal concerns and a large user base in Brazil. It is no longer active.
Myspace, founded in August 2003 by Chris DeWolfe, Tom Anderson, and Jon Hart, allows users to create web profiles, share images, and connect with others. It's known for music promotion and a youthful user base. Users must be at least 13 years old.
LinkedIn, founded in May 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly and now owned by Microsoft, is a professional networking platform. Users can create résumé-like profiles, connect with colleagues, and seek job opportunities
Friendster: Founded March 2002, aimed to connect people globally. Became a gaming platform in 2011, with over 115 million users. Closed in June 2015; operations ceased June 2018.
Ryze: Founded October 2001, Adrian Scott. Connects business professionals, 500,000+ users globally. Influential in social networking, inspired Friendster's dating version.
SixDegrees, founded in 1997, pioneered social networking, mapping real connections. It ran until 2000 and still sends updates to unregistered relationships. Users listed connections and communicated within degrees of separation.