site

to interact

content

the rest was history

common thread

to take by storm

blog - web log

nineties

to create

to contribute

strength - weakness

This reading comprehension focuses on social networks. Its followed by key vocabulary relating to social networks and technology and a follow-up quiz to test understanding.Social Networks Do the names MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, etc. ring a bell? They probably do because they are some of the most popular sites on the internet today. These sites are all called social networking sites because they help people meet and discuss things online. Each of these social networking sites has its own strengths: MySpace is especially popular among teenagers, Facebook is popular with college age people, Orkut is especially loved in Brazil, and CyWorld is the site to visit in South Korea. The common thread between all of these social networks is that they provide a place for people to interact, rather than a place to go to read or listen to content. Web 2.0 Social networks are considered to be web 2.0. What does this mean? To understand this, its important to understand what the original web did (often called web 1.0). Back in the nineties, the internet - or web - was a place to go to read articles, listen to music, get information,new york asian escort model etc. Most people didnt contribute to the sites. They just browsed the sites and took advantage of the information or resources provided. Of course, some people did create their own sites. However, creating a site was difficult. You needed to know basic HTML coding (the original language the internet uses to code pages). It certainly wasnt something most people wanted to do as it could take hours to get a basic page just right. Things began to get easier when blogs (from web log) were introduced. With blogs, many more people began writing posts, as well as commenting on other peoples blogs. MySpace Surprises Everybody In 2003 a site named MySpace took the internet by storm. It was trying to mimic the most popular features of Friendster, the first social networking site. It quickly became popular among young users and the rest was history. Soon everyone was trying to develop a social networking site. The sites didnt provide content to people, they helped people create, Social Networking communicate and share what they loved including music, images and videos. They key to the success of these sites is that they provide a platform on which users create the content. This is very different from the beginning of the internet which focused on providing content for people to enjoy. Key to Success Relying on users to create content is the key to the success of web 2.0 companies. Besides the social networking sites discussed here, other huge success storiesSocial Networking Sites - Reading Comprehension include: Wikipedia, Digg.com and the latest success - Twitter. All of these companies rely on the desire of users to communicate with each other, thereby creating the content that others want to consume. Key Vocabulary social network

to comment on

platform

internet - web

code / coding

to mimic

Check your understanding with this multiple choice comprehension quiz.

post

to browse a site

to ring a bell

to consume