Internet shopping. Instant messaging. Chat rooms. These are all ways that today’s web surfers are spending their time online. But above all, the web’s two hottest wonders are gaining increasing popularity as new users join them each day. These two social-networking powerhouses are MySpace and Facebook.

Created by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe in July of 2003, MySpace has grown increasingly popular due to the ability it gives users to write blogs, paste pictures, share information, and send private messages. Alexa.com, which ranks online traffic, has placed MySpace as the sixth most active site visited on the web. Accounts are free for anyone to create as long as a valid e-mail address is provided. Though many may consider MySpace a site for teenagers only, a company called comScore who has researched its traffic states that more than half of the MySpace community is over 35 years old. Though no exact figure is known, it was reported in 2006 that over 100 million users had registered for a MySpace account. One of the main reasons that this social-networking phenomenon has grown at a tremendous rate is because of its notable user-friendliness. It is quite simple to add/remove photos to your user profile, and members can even add their favorite song to their page for others to hear when visiting. Hundreds of MySpace-editing sites have also popped up on the web, which contain various artwork, backgrounds, and layouts that users can utilize to customize their profiles. Unfortunately, MySpace is now being carefully watched by numerous law-enforcement agencies, as sexual predators have found it as a perfect source to meet and greet young children.

Facebook.com, the other web site that has defined social networking on the web today, appeals to a much smaller crowd. For one, users must become part of a network to join. In order to become part of a network, a valid college e-mail address is required. One registered, users can send messages to friends, leave comments on their “walls,” or simply browse other profiles. However, Facebook is a bit more restrictive; users can only browse the profiles of those who are either their friends or in their respective network (meaning they are from the same school). Formerly known as thefacebook, this web site was started by Harvard student Mark Zuckerburg and his two classmates. The network was originally limited to only Harvard students but would eventually expand to Yale and then to the 30,000 plus colleges across the nation that it recognizes. After converting it from thefacebook to simply Facebook, Zuckerburg and his colleagues dropped out of Harvard to pursue their online project. In 2005 the domain Facebook.com was purchased for an estimated $200,000. According to a recent survey, students spend an average of at least 20 minutes each day browsing through the network’s various features, and roughly 85% of college students have their own Facebook account. Alexa ranks it as the seventh most visited site on the web.

So just what does the future hold for these two networking giants? MySpace will no question remain popular considering that advertisers are now finding ways to reach out to its large member base, thus making it a strong promotional tool. As for Facebook, it has more than doubled its membership in approximately a one year time span, going from about 7.5 millions users last summer to almost 18 million now. With social networking clearly on the rise, there is no telling what the future is going to bring for these two networking surges.