The brave, new online world offers many ways to reconnect with friends and make new ones with social networking sites. Sites like MySpace and Facebook continue to skyrocket in popularity, and many newer sites are just under the radar.

In the past, dating has long been limited to who you could meet at school, work, or through friends. Online profiles offer pictures, personal information, and user-posted blogs, so site browsers can seek out ideal candidates for dating based on both their looks and their personality. Messaging, comments and other site-based interactions give people a chance to get to know each other online before meeting in the real world.

Photos give users a chance to share their new styles as well as pictures of their friends and big life events with everyone in their online social circle. The user’s friends can then make picture comments, feeding an ever-increasing appetite for attention among young users. Some sites allow users to make their profiles or pictures private, so only other members on their friend list can view them. This is often automatically enforced for members under 18 years old for their protection.

Video sharing is also available. Members can post funny or entertaining videos they have taken themselves, or even videos they find elsewhere on the web, to amuse their friends.

Blogging is the new megaphone for those with something to say. Personal experiences, gripes, commentary, or creative writing can be showcased on a member’s profile. Other users comment on the entries and subscribe to their friends’ blogs, allowing them to be notified when the friend posts a new blog.

Bored at school or work? Many sites offer quizzes and surveys to pass the time. Take the surveys and pass them onto friends to share personal trivia. Some sites post popular quizzes every day.

When members list their interests on their profile, it is inevitable music will show up 9 times out of ten. Music labels work with bands and artists on social networking sites to expand marketing. Bands can post new music, videos, and let their fans know when they will be touring.

Most social networking sites on the internet have all these same basic offerings. So what makes one more popular than another? Different sites have caught fire around the world at different times, and it seems that the main influence is social mobilization. Are your friends doing it?

Some new sites like SocialSplash are now offering incentives and free gifts to get new recruits. This is one way to pull members from the major sites where the bigger social networking atmospheres are too crowded. With smaller sites, members feel that the network is more personalized and less overpopulated.

More specialty sites are being created than ever before, aiming at both younger and older audiences. As more social networking sites continue to appear, it will be interesting to see how the change the nature of everyday communication. Will Myspace replace the phone? Probably not. But with technology serving a much bigger role in society than ever before, social networking sites are sure to be a big part of twenty-first century life.