Throughout 2009, many interesting virtual technological advancements have emerged, taken into account the celebrated growth of one of the most popular social networks, Facebook.
Social Networks have existed ever since the beginning of the decade, varying from social blogging portals, such as Windows Live Spaces, to video-hosting networks, such as YouTube, to mere social networks, such as Hi5, Bebo, MySpace, and most importantly, Facebook.
Throughout the many years that this decade delimited, several social networks emerged, each for its significant purpose. Amongst them was the well-known social network, MySpace, which leapt in popularity for its ability to integrate all the social networking structures under one site. For a start, MySpace seemed to be a quite neat site, as it provided the many capabilities one could use to customise his or her profile. However, many users started abusing these capabilities by displaying their profiles with abysmal colours that simply hurt the eyes. Additionally, filling their profiles with automatically played garish music that causes you to bounce out of your chair owing to shock.
A couple of years later, Facebook gained popularity as of a well-presented, well-organised feature set. As Facebook proceeded to grow in popularity, it began introducing APIs for third-party applications to assimilate, enhanced privacy settings to tinker with, and further enhancements to stay connected in “real-time.” Wait! Did I just say “real-time”? Well, yes. That is why Twitter has been in the centre of attention for this year, as the service it provides promises to deliver real-time messages from one end-point to the other. However, Facebook and Twitter are not the only “real-time” contingent social networks on the web, as Google Wave promises to exhibit “real-time” emphasis on a web-based service intended to unite social networking, instant messaging, and e-mail delivery.
Speaking of “real-time,” Google has recently introduced its “Cloud Computing” concept, where through Google’s new Chrome OS, users will be able to store their data online (in the cloud) so to be accessed anytime, anywhere, it will make use of Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Weather, Google Calculator, and all the plentiful services Google has to offer. Therefore, users will no longer be as dependable on physical storage media, as all their files would be stored virtually, on the web. On the other hand, Microsoft is introducing a breakthrough innovation to application development—this innovation is known as Windows Azure—an Operating System solely designed to allow developers to provide users with “Cloud Computing” technology and products to use, on the fly.
“Real-time” was the keyword for this year, 2009, as social networks have been dragging it further with real-time improvements and enhancements to the way we share and connect. However, as I see it, 2010’s new keyword would be “cloud computing,” where users store and maintain their data online to access them wherever they are, securely and easily.
May you have an exceptional New Year!