Will Social Features Make Sexy Again? By: Kevin Delaney and Vauhini Vara Presented By: Nathan Miller, Amy Murray, Megan Monaco, Michelle Nicol

Services vs. Social Networks  - Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Google  Social Networks- Facebook, My Space, Live Journal

Developments in Adding sociable functions  Personal Profiles  Picture Sharing  Tracking Friends

Developments in Social Networks Adding messaging capabilities  Send s to outside accounts  Transmit video messages  Soon will be able to make voice calls

Consequences of new & social networks New - -May not need social networks to track friends New Social Networks- Implicate Internet portals that rely on consumer traffic

Current Users  million users of accessed through Web browsers  million social networking users  Predict 1.4 billion accounts at the end of the year

New Services  Yahoo - See which friends are online - Considering offering special services within network -Can send bigger files to friends -Profile pages indicate birthdays -Looking to expand so that friends can be found on other networks

New Services  AOL - Allowing users to access social networks through - AOL Instant Messages will have better profiles  Google (GMail) - Tracking frequency of and correspondence to help friend connections - Provide outside Web developers so users can have personalized home pages

Figures to Consider  Only 20% of Yahoo users have My Space Accounts  Only 10% of Yahoo users have Facebook Accounts  Microsoft does not believe Social Networks “crimping” usage, numbers increased from 285 million in July

New Social Networks  Facebook -Connections between users “backbone” - Photo sharing, Event Planning - “News Feed” about friends - Send to outside addresses  My Space - Make “Internet voice calls”