Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Project Context

Nowadays, social networking sites are very common to anyone. Past social networking sites have and continue to serve their purpose of helping users socialize and meet new people. However, the days when social networking sites have the simple role of being a method of socialization and communication are gone. Social networking sites provide social network services.

These sites offer the convenience of introducing users to other people with the use of customization done to the user’s personal profile pages. These web pages are what is presented to other people and gives out information about the user who owns the said web page. It is also a way to express oneself, either by conveying what is on one’s mind, or by showing the user’s creativity through different artistic customizations.

The first social networking site that attracted a lot of users is called Friendster. Friendster was founded to create a safer, more effective environment for meeting new people by browsing user profiles and connecting to friends, friends of friends, allowing members to expand their network of friends more rapidly than in real life, face-to-face scenarios.

After several years, other social networking sites showed up and were introduced. Some of these sites are Twitter, Multiply, MySpace and Facebook. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg on 2004. These social networking sites have a lot in common, although each of them has several unique features which give them their distinction from other websites. Even if this case, they all share the same purpose of allowing people to socialize and meet new people.

In order for people to use the site’s services, they must first make a personal account. From there, users may add friends or contacts to their account. The people that users will add may be someone they know, or not. Users may socialize with their friends by submitting comments, messaging, live chatting, and blogging....