Social Networking

Do you know what is the communication medium in now? 
Social Networking. . . It's the way the 21st century communicates today.


Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision, if you will. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is most popular online. This is because unlike most high schools, colleges, or workplaces, the internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences about inyterviews, developing friendships or professional alliances, finding employment and business-to-business marketing.


When it comes to online social networking, websites are commonly used. These websites are known as social sites. Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users. Depending on the website in question, many of these online community members share common interests in hobbies, studies or employement. Once you are granted access to a social networking website you can begin to socialize. This socialization may include reading the profile pages of other members and possibly even contacting them. 



Benefits:
The friends that you can make are just one of the many benefits to social networking online. Another one of those benefits includes diversity because the internet gives individuals from all around the world access to social networking sites. This means that although you are in the United States, you could develop an online friendship with someone in US or India. Not only will you make new friends, but you just might learn a thing or two about new cultures or new languages and learning is always a good thing.

As mentioned, social networking often involves grouping specific individuals or organizations together. While there are a number of social networking websites that focus on particular interests, there are others that do not. The websites without a main focus are often referred to as "traditional" social networking websites and usually have open memberships. This means that anyone can become a member, no matter what their hobbies, beliefs, or views are. However, once you are inside this online community, you can begin to create your own network of friends and eliminate members that do not share common interests or goals.

Issues:

As I'm sure you're aware, there are dangers associated with social networking including data theft and viruses, which are on the rise. The Internet can be a dangerous place to post personal information. All social networks should provide the ability to set profiles to private in some way or another. Additionally they should have the ability to report and block users.

Most Popular Sites:

Once you are well informed and comfortable with your findings, you can begin your search from hundreds of networking communities to join. This can easily be done by performing a standard internet search. Most popular sites are:

Key Elements:

Profiles

The heart and soul of social networking sites are user’s personal profiles. It’s like their own Internet sanctuary, a place where they can express their thoughts and feelings, post photographs and show off their network of friends. The most popular social network websites put a strong emphasis on the user’s profile, making it easy to use yet still reflective of the user’s personality.

Networking Features

A good social network goes above and beyond just allowing users to post profiles and update pictures. Additional features should include music sections, video uploads, groups and more.

Search

The object of a social network is to find friends and expand relationships. Top social networking websites allows members to search for other members in a safe and easy to use environment. Common search functions include search by name, city, school and email address.

Help/Support

Most social network sites are self-explanatory. However, in the off-chance a user needs help there needs to be some way to contact the webmaster or answers in an FAQs section.

Legitimate Friend Focus

The growing trend for social networks is to communicate and keep in touch with people you already know. No one wants to be inundated with unsolicited spam friend requests. The best social network sites keep profiles and search options private enough that the only people that can find you are the ones actually looking for users in their own school or neighborhood networks. Even with a completely public profile, users shouldn’t be bothered with more than a couple of unsolicited comments or messages.

Development of Social Networking Sites

Web 2.0 technologies are the most suitable technologies to develope the Social Networking sites. There are many types of them:

• Blogs
• Bookmarking/Tagging
• Brand monitoring
• Content aggregation
• Crowdsourcing/Voting
• Discussion boards and forums
• Events and meetings
• Mashups
• Microblogging
• Online video
• Organization and staffing
• Outreach programs
• Photosharing
• Podcasting
• Presentation sharing
• Public Relations - Social media releases
• Ratings and reviews
• Social networks : applications, fan pages, groups and personalities
• Advertisement Sponsorships
• Virtual worlds
• Widgets

Many jokes are on Social networking... but be careful.

Google Maps with Street View

What is Street View ?

Street View as being the last zoom layer on the map - when you've zoomed all the way in you find yourself virtually standing on the street. But the most exciting thing about Street View is all the amazing uses that our users and partners find for it.

Personal Uses

• Explore the world
• On the go with your mobile device
• Check parking availability and disabled access
• Show your parents and friends where you live
• Preview your vacation accommodation

Business Uses

• Promote your business
• Show real estate listings
• Conduct virtual field trips
• Show the location of a news story
• Scout event locations

How else can I use Street View?

You can view street-level imagery with driving or walking directions. Once you have obtained directions, click the camera icons beside each step in the left panel. 

Where is Street View available?

Explore the Google map of the world to see where Street View is currently available. Each placemark gives you the option to view sample panoramas from each major city.

 For India work is in progress. So soon we the facility.     

http://maps.google.co.in/

How Street View is creating?

In the Beginning

Street View was launched in May 2007 to allow our users to explore the world through images. At the time, coverage was limited to just five U.S. cities.

The feature provides users 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic street level views within Google Maps. Google collects these images using special cameras and equipment that capture and match images to a specific location using GPS devices. Once the images are captured, they are "sewn" together to create a 360° panorama. Faces and license plates are blurred before the panorama images are served and become viewable in Google Maps.

What are the Vehicles?

When Street View first launched, the platform used to capture images was a van.

Since our launch in 2007, Street View has expanded to include more cities, streets, national parks and even some biking trails. Currently, Street View is available for almost a dozen countries around the world in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Scaling the project to this level required more lightweight and high-quality technology.

The van was replaced by a car. We have used different vehicles in different regions around the world to collect tens of millions of images.

Most recently we've added a new vehicle to our fleet that we call the "Trike." We basically took the same technology in our Street View cars and towed them behind a 3-wheeled tricycle in a device reminiscent of an ice cream cart. The Trike lets us reach areas not accessible by car, such as hiking trails, biking trails and college campuses, just to name a few.

Our current platforms include nine directional cameras for the 360° views, a GPS unit for positioning and laser range scanners. We design and engineer the Street View platforms to be simple and require minimal manufacturing resources. This approach facilitates the ability to be up and running in a short period of time and allows us to quickly scale and get our vehicles on the road around the world.

Where Do Google Collect Imagery?

Street View imagery is limited to public streets. Ultimately we'd love to drive every public road available, but there is no guarantee that we can cover every location completely. For example, we might face circumstances that are out of our control such as roadwork and construction. You can see a list of the countries and, where available, regions and cities we are driving here. If you find imagery collected from a private road please let us know by clicking on the "Report a problem" link within Street View.

In some cases, Google receives permission from the owner of private attractions to include images in Street View. For example, you can see imagery that we collected in a special drive of Disneyland Paris.

If you are an owner of a property and would like to have Street View imagery collected, please check out our Street View Partner Program.

It can take several months to collect imagery for an individual city, and even longer for an entire country. The time it takes to cover a particular area depends on a number of factors - e.g. the weather, geography and population. We also provide an easy-to-use tool that allows users to request for images of themselves, their car, their family, or their houses to be removed from Street View once the product has been launched for a specific area.

Turning Photos Into Street View

Once the photographs have been taken by our vehicles they go through computer processing to make them ready for showing on Google Maps. We take all the individual photos that have been collected by the cameras and "sew" them together to make the 360° panorama photo that you see on Google Maps.

We then apply cutting-edge face blurring technology, which helps make sure that passers-by in the photographs can't be identified. We will also blur legible license plates. Check out the Privacy page for more details on how we protect your privacy.

For more details:

http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/maps/streetview/

In a nutshell,