What are the best social networking sites for students?

Great question! I can best answer your question, because I know social networking sites, and I'm working on starting a social site exclusively for college students, yet I'm delaying the launch to make sure it works well enough for the students who use it. That's the challenge with any startup, making sure your site works, minus the bugs, and with social networking, it's a harder to accomplish and to make it perfect.

You've seen that with Mahalo, it's taken time to make it perfect. There are lot of challenges to make it work right, and get the people who know how to develop things right. First, I believe that one best site does not exist yet, and it would be hard to say there is a group of the best sites for students, just sites that exist for students.

I believe that nobody does social networking perfectly, or does it right currently! I also believe that there is no perfect way to do social networking best, there are just different ways of doing it. If there were a perfect way to do it, then there wouldn't be competing ways, or believers like me who believe in great ideas and ways.

So, I am biased that the site I'm starting called FreezeCrowd, which I was looking to launch this year, but I may push it back till 2010 now, as I think people do not want a site launched with bugs and features that do not work well enough to be used. That's a challenge with any startup.So, I'm trying to get it launched in 2010 now, as I've had more challenges to get things right with the site. My concept with FreezeCrowd will be different from other such sites, because we are about connecting people in real photos with their friends.

I even have filed patents on the ideas, and concepts, because I believe it's different enough than the current sites that are available. I believe the challenge with pre-existing social sites is that they encourage virtual collaboration, virtual groups, virtual friends, and so forth, whereas with FreezeCrowd, my goal is to establish real life experiences, real life connections, and bring real meaning back to those who use the Web for social networking. With FreezeCrowd we would be doing this with photographic memories, so that people will be able to connect with each other in the photos, that they shared real experiences, opposed to just saying you are a virtual friend with a user, a real friend is one who gets into the crowd, and takes a photo with their friends.

Why I believe this is important: I originally came up with the idea as I was looking at my freshman picture book years ago. I was looking at all the individual photos in the picture book, and thought how everyone in the picture book shared something in common, yet didn't have a real experience with each other yet. So, I thought wouldn't it be neat if we could figure out a way to connect people in group photos with their friends, their real friends, the people they hang out with in real life, rather than those who they just meet on the Internet.

Connect people who really have been together, connect people with common interests, but what does it really mean if they haven't been together? So, we are striving to bring meaning to those photos, and "freeze" people's photographic memories. Photos are just one way to connect people in a crowd or a group.

The other way would be to have people join a virtual group with people you were not with in real life, but only those people who join the virtual group. Now, with any startup, I believe the challenge is getting everyone to follow through with a vision perfectly. Now, I am not going to say that FreezeCrowd will be the only social networking site, and there are plenty of sites marketing to students.

I think with any social networking site, you need to realize that the site is just a tool, and that goes with any tool you use, whether it's Mahalo, or Twitter, it's just a tool, and it's just 1 tool.It's how you use that tool is that matters most. If you use a social networking site to upload pictures of your dog, or talk about your dog, then you are obviously misusing the tool! Your dog is not your friend on the social networking site, it's just your hobby.

Are you connecting with people you shared your life with? Your dog doesn't even know about these social networking sites, and your dog cannot be an active member of a social networking site. If you want to join a social networking site for dog lovers, and talk about your life adventure with your dog, then you would join a social networking site called MySocialDog.Com or something to that extent.

What I believe: I honestly believe that anyone on a real social networking site should be required to have a photo and show who they are, rather than be someone who does not exist in real life. If you anonymize yourself on a social networking site, then you basically defeat the purpose. Would you walk around with a mask on in real life?

If you do not have a photo, then you are simply not an active user on a networking site, nor are you a real person who is there to network, you are a lurker, not a networker. So, since I'm biased of my dreams and big ideas, and this site I'm starting has not launched yet, it's important to realize there are other tools out there, that you, a college student can benefit from. Not all of them are networking sites, but they are academic networking sites, which serve the purpose of connecting virtually with people who share a common interest in a particular study.

I don't deny there are other sites out there that will compete with FreezeCrowd, but I believe they serve a different purpose and we are original. Some sites are excellent for academic networking, and I believe in these ideas, but I wouldn't call them social. Some sites are more so status update sites like Twitter, and are not truly social networking sites, yet rather a micro blogging site.

Other sites are only available at one or two schools, so I cannot give them a thumbs up if you do not go to that school. There is a list here of 50 Best Social Networks for Students below, and this was published before my site will launch. I don't believe in all the sites out there as good tools to use for networking for students, so I'm not promoting this list here.

I do not believe these are necessarily "the best" yet rather what's available. http://onlineschool.net/2009/09/29/50-best-social-networks-for-online-students/ At the end of the day, the important things for any networking sites or social network tools are below: 1. A social networking site is only as good as its network on the site, but also it's as good as the way the site works and networks people 2.

The people who make up the network are what makes the network social a. Who communicates and b. Who they communicate with 3.

A social network site is a tool, and how you use it matters, but if a social networking site allows you to distance yourself, and never see your friends, how social is it really? 4. A social networking site is NOT the only way to be social.

If you rely only on a social networking site for your social networking in real life, then you are missing the point of social networking. 5. Networking sites are not always the best way for everyone to network 6.

A bigger social networking site is not always a better social networking site. A better social networking site is one that connects and helps people better with the people who they want to connect with.7. Social networking sites are NOT free.

We market them as free, but your time is not free. Every second or minute you spend on a social networking site, you are using that time for something, which you could be doing something else.8. Whatever you do, it goes on your record.

If you put it out on the Internet, then it will be there forever.9. People are not always who they say they are online 10.Be careful about what you say or share online If you believe that there is ONLY one social networking site available, you are missing the reality. The fact that there are over 1 million social networking communities (according to Ning) and there are many other ways to network in real life, the fact is there is not just one social networking site.

Also, the one or two sites that might be the biggest today, may not be the biggest 5-10 years from now. The biggest social networking site 3 years ago, are not the biggest today.

Some of the best are myspace. Com, facebook. Com, facebook more for college students, myspace is more for all ages.

Mike!

It depends upon the country. In India "Bharatstudent. Com" is a popular social networking site for students.

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I would reocommend these sites (Facebook,Myspace,Friendster,5 and Bebo) You can also check these other sites out 1. College Tonight College students.2Classmates.Com School, college, work and the military 3. Friends Reunited UK based.

School, college, work, sport and streets 4. Nasza-klasa. Pl School, college and friends.

Popular in Poland.5. StudiVZ University students, mostly in the German-speaking countries. School students and those out of education sign up via its partner sites SchulerVZ and Meinvz.6.Trombi.

Com French subsidiary of Classmates.Com 7.Tuenti. Com Spanish-based university and gh School social network. Very Popular in Spain 8.

Viadeo European Social Networking and Campus Networking in Seven Languages 9. Yammer Social networking for office colleagues The above information was obtain from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites\ 1. Campusbug 2.

Edmodo 3. Academici 4. ResearchGATE 5.SciSpace.Net 6.

Cramster 7.Student. Com 8. WordChamp 9.

Learnhub 10. The Quad 11. Loomagoo These social networks sites where obtain from http://onlineschool.net/2009/09/29/50-best-social-networks-for-online-students/ 1.

AlumWire 2. B4Class 3.BuddyUniversity.Com 4.CollegeMedium. Com 5.

College Tonight 6. CollegeClassifieds. Com 7.Graduates.

Com 8.LibraryThing.Com 9.Scholar. Com information obtain from http://studenthacks.org/2008/02/04/social-networking-websites.

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Google wave is the end all of collaboration tools it will solve all note taking problems and is way cool and live but its kinda hard to get an invite I explain a little about it in my blog below the main google url is below too but its closed. If you can get invites it is totally awesome not a big list but an awesome tool...

Facebook is th most well-known one, but there's also myspace, twitter, and skoogo.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.