Social Networking Portals: An Overview and Evaluation

Abstract

Next generation communication on the Internet changes the way we interact with the complexity of the information load on the World Wide Web. Web portals act as gateways to resources and a multitude of services on the Internet. Social networking portals add a new quality to collaborative online communities, allowing users to create and maintain a network of close friends or business associates. In this paper, the different types of social networking sites are classified, and an evaluation is performed in terms of communication and collaboration features, searching and browsing capabilities. Furthermore, user perception, access statistics and privacy issues are discussed.