Social networking service 

A social networking service (also social networking site or SNS) is a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who share similar interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his or her social links, and a variety of additional services. Social network sites are web-based services that allow individuals to create a public profile, create a list of users with whom to share connections, and view and cross the connections within the system.^[1] Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Social network sites are varied and they incorporate new information and communication tools such as mobile connectivity, photo/video/sharing and blogging.^[2] Online community services are sometimes considered a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, pictures, posts, activities, events, and interests with people in their network.

The main types of social networking services are those that contain category places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with American-based services such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, Vine, Tumblr, and Twitter widely used worldwide; Nexopia in Canada;^[3] Badoo,^[4] Bebo,^[5]Vkontakte (Russia), Delphi, Draugiem.lv (Latvia), iWiW (Hungary), Nasza-Klasa (Poland), Soup (Austria), Glocals in Switzerland, Skyrock, The Sphere, StudiVZ(Germany), Tagged, Tuenti (mostly in Spain), Myspace, Xanga and XING^[6] in parts of Europe;^[7] Hi5 in South America and Central America; Mxit in Africa;^[8]Cyworld, Mixi, Renren, Friendster, Sina Weibo and Wretch in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

There have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source Initiative^{[clarification needed]}). A study reveals that India has recorded world's largest growth in terms of social media users in 2013.^[9] A 2013 survey found that 73% of U.S adults use social networking sites.^[10]

 

 

 

^{copyright:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn}