This article examines the future of social networking sites by looking at current trends in the market, specifically Cisco’s seemingly odd decision to buy the tiny social networking company Tribe.net. Cisco’s decision reflects the belief that social networking sites will soon be everywhere, and they want to get into the game right now in order to offer these services to their clients. The article discusses the future of social networking Websites, hypothesizing that they will continue to grow in number and type. It also discusses the possibility that although large-scale sites like facebook.com and MySpace.com have been immensely popular, other niche sites (like Shelfari) are becoming more popular. These sites allow users to gain more control over their network and express their interests in a more focused community than, say, facebook.com. However, there are certain barriers to entry for social networking sites, and Cisco (and other large corporations who try to dive into this market) very well may face some of these difficulties. First of all, it is tough to get consumers to initially buy into a social network until many other people have also signed up. Also, getting consumers to sign up for multiple sites is difficult because of the redundancy and tedium of entering the same information.  This article is interesting in that it shows how ubiquitous and economically important social networks have become. Cisco clearly thinks it a worthwhile investment and that there are diverse possibilities for social networks. However, this article also points out the challenges of starting a social networking site. Something this article did not mention are the joint deals that are being made between corporations and social networking sites, like Facebook.com's deal with Comcast. This is another dimension of diversity and growth for this industry.

    This article did offer a succinct look at how far social networking sites have come and where they might go. I was especially intrigued by the idea of a long tail of social networking on the Internet which could be much more personalized; and yet there is also the convenience of the larger-scale systems. Currently, there is a mix of the large and small, and I’m interested to see how these acquisitions (like Cisco’s) affect the future of social networks. The problem for small networks is that they must overcome the aggravation of joining and of the smallness of their communities; I think the way to do that is to appeal to the smaller, niche markets which want to stay small.