There’s something truly spectacular about what’s happening with the Web these days in regards to social networking. While the Web was built on the principle of unfettered, worldwide communication and reached for new levels of complexity for the sake of commerce over the last couple of decades, it’s the advent of “Web 2.0″ and personal connectivity that are taking the Web to new heights. Thanks to advances in hardware and the global nature of the Web itself, the level of “connectedness” between users is something previously unseen in any other technology or medium. Using sites like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and a score of others, it’s easier than ever to keep up with your friends, your favorite “things” and just about anything that anyone in the world might take an interest in.
Just a five years ago, it was a common practice for someone to have to search and find their friends online, and then resort to other, more-traditional forms of communication (e-mails, phone calls, etc.) just to interact with them. These days, traces of personalization, transparency and social interactivity are finding their ways into sites of all purposes. It would seem that in its relatively short history, the Web has gone from being a place of open communication and discussion to a promising-yet-ultimately-busted marketplace to a dazzling new hybrid. A hybrid where users can communicate and connect with each other and where companies are able to get in on the game and become more approachable by “networking” with customers. Same puzzle, same puzzle pieces, but somehow, it’s all a much happier combination.
And yet, I think I’ve hit my limit.
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