Social networking has become the unequivocal paradigm for the online user interaction known as Web 2.0.
Web services that can be classified as Web 2.0 are heavily driven by user-content and generally exist only as a platform for people to assemble and collaborate with each other rather than exhaust that service's resources.
These applications are entirely dynamic and rarely involve any static content. Even the innovators eventually grow stale and the new kids on the block become the latest sensation to sweep the nation.
I'm sure most of you are still using Facebook or MySpace (or, God help you, Xanga). There is really no point in moving to another social networking Web site unless your friends are there, but hopefully I can provide motivation for such a transition.
Two services that should really garner your attention are the social-blogging platform Twitter and music-oriented Last.fm.
Twitter, described as a micro-blogging service where users send each other 140-character updates called "tweets," is like a an intensely large chat room with your friends and the occasional insight from people you may not know.
The 140-character cutoff sounds limiting, but it actually provides part of the Twitter magic. Not only is this limit conducive to more frequent updates, but it also inspires a more potent usage of words. When you are restricted to putting your ideas into the space of 140 characters, it becomes a wonderful meta-event of attempting to trim the linguistic fat off your soon-to-be lean Twitter steak.
These continual updates may not seem like a big deal, especially if it is not likely you will log in to a Web site just to see what your friend had for lunch if your most recurrent source of world events is Conan O'Brien's nightly monologue - but Twitter's availability is undeniably omnipresent.
You can receive an update via text message from your phone, download desktop applications such as twhirl or Twitteriffic for the complete graphical experience, or get updates by e-mail, RSS subscription or instant messenger.
Services built off of the Twitter application programing interface are vital to completing the Twitter adventure. This includes TwitPic, which allows you to upload, e-mail or use a multimedia messaging service to send an image or tweet. It also allows your followers to get the full visual impact of your words. I mean, who wouldn't want to see the squirrel you made friends with on the way to class this morning?
Last.fm goes in a different direction than Twitter while still providing a completely different experience from mainstream social networking Web sites.
Following the Web 2.0's trend of misappropriating or creating entirely new words, Last.fm provides users various methods for "scrobbling" music information with their Audioscrobbler system. Users are filling out their musical preferences simply by listening to their favorite songs or artists by either using the customizable streaming radio stations on Last.fm's Web site, software plug-ins for desktop media players like iTunes and Winamp, or compatible portable music players.
With this data Last.fm's Audioscrobbler can compile a list of recommendations and show you your musical compatibility with any other Last.fm user.
This musical compatibility and the scrobbled charts of top-played artists and songs on every user's Web page provide deep insight into the people you once thought you knew. Your friends can no longer hide the fact that they still listen to Hanson or enjoy the entire discography of Kenny G. on a nightly basis.
If this "musical DNA" system (similar to the Music Genome Project's Pandora.com, another excellent online music recommendation engine) simply isn't enough to quench your social networking thirst, Last.fm also offers a blog similar to LiveJournal, Meetup-like events with Flickr integration, and Facebook-esque groups you can join.
I don't expect you to immediately migrate from whatever social networking utility you currently employ to either Twitter or Last.fm, but all these Web applications can be truly different experiences in the online social cloud.
When properly utilized, all these operations can provide you with the most comprehensive experience in the Web 2.0 world.
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