With the successes of MySpace, Friendster, and other online social networking communities, a lot of companies have joined the bandwagon. Facebook, however, appears to be languishing in a bout of problems in privacy issues and its true worth out of its supposedly $15 billion worth. There’s no stopping people from becoming members of these social networking sites.

There’s no stopping people from putting up their social networking sites either. But if they fail to be creative and engage their members, they would just fall into disuse and be relegated to oblivion. Online social networking sites will also integrate mobile features as more and more cell phones become integrated with the Web. 

The usage of social networking sites fall under two broad categories—functionality and its sociability. On the one hand, there are social networking sites that simply connect people and allow them to collectively boast of what they are about. There are also those sites whose online sharing are based on a shared interest, hobby, or the need to share relevant files together.

There is currently a divide between sites that offer only functionality and sociability. The former tend to treat social connections as an afterthought and not really essential to the system while the latter has limited capacity for additional functions on top of the social networking part. As 2008 beckons, the race is on for social networking sites to integrate the two broad purposes—functionality and sociability.

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