A social network site is a recent phenomenon born out of the Internet that allows individuals to create a personal profile or identity, and connect with friends and strangers alike almost anywhere in the world.
It is almost impossible to keep track of all of them, since there are so many new ones coming out all the time. Now, it is even possible for almost anyone to create a social networking site by using a Web application such as PHPFox. Not all of them can be winners, of course, since there are only so many that a person will be able to sign up with due to time constraints, and because people will tend to gravitate toward the most popular ones such as Facebook, Tagged, and MySpace. If someone can come up with a new twist, however, they could possibly enjoy some success.
Here is a list of the most popular sites, sorted alphabetically. Some of them, you will recognize, but a lot of them will be new to you, especially that ones that were created for special interest groups.
The best social networking sites
| Name | Description/Focus | Registered users |
| 43 Things | Goal setting and achievements | 3,000,000+ |
| Academia | Social networking site for academics/researchers | 212,000 |
| Adult FriendFinder | Adults Only Network. Swingers, Free Adult Chat & Adult Personals Site. Focus: sex | 33,000,000 |
| Advogato | open source software developers | 13,575 |
| Amie Street | Music | |
| ANobii | Books | |
| AsianAve | A social network for the Asian American community | |
| aSmallWorld | European jet set and social elite | 270,000 |
| Athlinks | Online games | |
| Audimated | Independent music | |
| Badoo | General, Popular in Europe | 37,000,000 |
| Bebo | General | 40,000,000 |
| Bigadda | Indian Social Networking Site | 3,000,000 |
| BigTent | Organization and communication portal for groups | |
| Biip | Norwegian community | |
| BlackPlanet | African-Americans | 20,000,000 |
| Blogster | Blogging service that lets users "add friends" or establish business connections to their profiles | 58,344 |
| Broadcaster.com | Video sharing and webcam chat | 322,715 |
| Buzznet | Music and pop-culture | 10,000,000 |
| CafeMom | Mothers | 1,250,000 |
| Cake Financial | Investing | |
| Care2 | Green living and social activism. Their aim is to "make it easy for everyone to live a healthy, green lifestyle and impact the causes they care about most." | 9,961,947 |
| Classmates.com | School, college, work and the military | 50,000,000 |
| Cloob | General. Popular in Iran. | |
| College Tonight | College students | |
| CouchSurfing | Worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. | 1,118,447 |
| DailyBooth | Photo-blogging site where users upload a photo every day. | |
| DailyStrength | Medical & emotional support community - Physical health, Mental health, Support groups | |
| Decayenne | European and American social elite | |
| DeviantART | Art community | 9,040,962 |
| Disaboom | People with disabilities. (Amputee, cerebral palsy, MS, and other disabilities.) | |
| dol2day | Politic community, Social network, Internet radio (German-speaking countries) | 40,200 |
| DontStayIn | Clubbing (primarily UK) | |
| Draugiem.lv | General (primarily LV, LT, HU) | 2,400,000 |
| Elftown | Community and wiki around Fantasy and sci-fi | 185,000 |
| Epernicus | For research scientists | |
| Eons.com | For baby boomers | |
| Experience Project | Life experiences | |
| Exploroo | Travel Social Networking | |
| General | 300,000,000 | |
| Faceparty | General. Popular UK | 200,000 |
| Faces.com | British teens | |
| Fetlife | People who are into BDSM | 32,500 |
| Filmaffinity | Movies and TV Series | 250,000 |
| FledgeWing | Entrepreneural community targeted towards worldwide university students. | |
| Flixster | Movies | 63,000,000 |
| Flickr | Photo sharing, commenting, photography related networking, worldwide | 32,000,000 |
| Fotolog | Photoblogging. Popular in South America and Spain. | 20,000,000 |
| Friends Reunited | UK based. School, college, work, sport and streets | 19,000,000 |
| Friendster | General. Popular in Southeast Asia. No longer popular in the western world. | 90,000,000 |
| Frühstückstreff | General | |
| Fubar | dating, an "online bar" for 18 and older | 1,200,000 |
| Gaia Online | Anime and games | |
| GamerDNA | Computer and video games | 310,000 |
| Gather.com | Article, picture, and video sharing, as well as group discussions | 465,000 |
| Gays.com | Social network for LGBY community, Guide for LGBT bars, restaurants, clubs, shooping | 100,000 |
| Geni.com | Families, genealogy | 15,000,000 |
| Gogoyoko | Fair play in Music - Social networking site for musicians and music lovers | |
| Goodreads | Library cataloging, book lovers | |
| Gossipreport.com | Anonymous gossip | |
| Grono.net | Poland | 2,000,000 |
| Habbo | General for teens. Over 31 communities worldwide. Chat Room and user profiles. | 117,000,000 |
| hi5 | General. Popular in India,Portugal, Mongolia, Thailand, Romania, Jamaica, Central Africa and Latin America. Not popular in the USA. | 80,000,000 |
| Hospitality Club | Hospitality | 328,629 |
| Hyves | General, Most popular in the Netherlands. | 9,000,000 |
| ibibo | Talent based social networking site that allows to promote one's self and also discover new talent. Most popular in India. | 3,500,000 |
| imeem | Music, Video, Photos, Blogs | 24,000,000 |
| IRC-Galleria | Finland | 505,000 |
| italki.com | Language learning social network. 100+ languages. | 450,000 |
| InterNations | International community | |
| itsmy | Mobile community worldwide, blogging, friends, personal TV-shows | 2,500,000 |
| iWiW | Hungary | 4,000,000 |
| Jaiku | General. Owned by Google. | |
| Jammer Direct | Creative resource website | |
| kaioo | General, nonprofit | 30,000 |
| Kaixin001 | General. In Simplified Chinese; caters for mainland China users | |
| Kiwibox | General. For the users, by the users, a social network that is more than a community. | 2,400,000 |
| Last.fm | Music | 30,000,000 |
| LibraryThing | Book lovers | 400,000 |
| lifeknot | Shared interests, hobbies | |
| General but mainly business | 50,000,000 | |
| LiveJournal | Blogging | 17,564,977 |
| Livemocha | Online language learning - dynamic online courses in 22 languages - world’s largest community of native language speakers. | 3,000,000 |
| LunarStorm | Sweden | |
| MEETin | General | |
| Meetup.com | General. Used to plan offline meetings for people interested in various activities. | |
| Meettheboss | Business and Finance community, worldwide. | |
| Mixi | Japan | 24,323,160 |
| Mobyko | Mobile community, UK only | |
| MocoSpace | Mobile community, worldwide | 3,000,000 |
| MOG | Music | |
| Mouthshut | Social Network, social media, consumer reviews | |
| Multiply | "Real world" relationships. Popular in Asia. Not popular in the western world. | 10,000,000 |
| Muxlim | Muslim portal site | 50,000 |
| MyAnimeList | Anime themed social community | 160,000 |
| MyChurch | Christian Churches | 144,295 |
| MyHeritage | family-oriented social network service | 30,000,000 |
| MyLife | Locating friends and family, keeping in touch (formerly Reunion.com) | 51,000,000 |
| MyLOL | General. Popular in the United States, Europe and Australia. | 32,000 |
| My Opera | Blogging, mobile blogging, sharing photos, connecting with friends. Global. | 3,000,000 |
| MySpace | General. Had lost some popularity in 2007 and 2008, but has started to experience a slight renaissance lately. | 263,920,102 |
| myYearbook | General | 5,100,000 |
| Nasza-klasa.pl | School, college and friends. Popular in Poland. | 11,000,000 |
| Netlog | General. Popular in Europe, Turkey, the Arab World and Canada's Québec province. Formerly known as Facebox and Redbox | 56,200,000 |
| Nettby | Norwegian Community. | |
| Nexopia | Canada | 1,400,000 |
| NGO Post | Non-Profit news sharing and networking, mainly in India | 15,000 |
| Ning | Users create their own social websites and social networks | |
| Odnoklassniki | General. Popular in Russia and former Soviet republics | 40,000,000 |
| OkCupid | Social networking and dating | |
| OneClimate | Not for Profit Social networking and Climate Change | |
| OneWorldTV | Not for Profit Video sharing and social networking aimed at people interested in social issues, development, environment, etc. | |
| Open Diary | First online blogging community, founded in 1998. | 5,000,000 |
| Orkut | Owned by Google. Popular in Brazil and India. | 67,000,000 |
| OUTeverywhere | Gay/LGBTQ Community | |
| PartnerUp | Social networking site for entrepreneurs and small business owners | 150,000 |
| Passportstamp | Travel | |
| Pingsta | Collaborative platform for the world's Internetwork Experts | |
| Plaxo | Aggregator | 15,000,000 |
| Playahead | Swedish, Danish,Norwegian teenagers | |
| Playboy U | Online college community | |
| Plurk | Micro-blogging, RSS, updates | |
| Present.ly | Enterprise social networking and micro-blogging | |
| Qapacity | A business-oriented social networking site and a business directory | |
| quarterlife | A social network for artists, filmmakers, musicians, and creative people | |
| Qzone | General. In Simplified Chinese; caters for mainland China usersy | 200,000,000 |
| Ravelry | Knitting and crochet | 331,000 |
| Renren | Significant site in China. Was known as 校内 (Xiaonei) until August 2009. | 15,000,000 |
| ResearchGATE | Social network for scientific researchers | 140,000 |
| Reset 2010 | Social network for homeowners in UK & Ireland experiencing negative equity | |
| Reverbnation | Social network for musician and bands | 25,000 |
| Ryze | Business | 500,000 |
| scispace.net | Collaborative network site for scientists | |
| Shelfari | Books | |
| Skyrock | Social Network in French-speaking world | 22,000,000 |
| SocialGO | A social network builder that allows users to build their own online communities | |
| SocialVibe | Social Network for Charity | 435,000 |
| Sonico.com | General. Popular in Latin America and Spanish and Portuguese speaking regions. | 17,000,000 |
| Soundpedia | Music | |
| Stickam | Live video streaming and chat. | 2,000,000 |
| 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. | 15,000,000 |
| Supernova.com | Independent music fans and artists. | 200,000 |
| Tagged | General. Subject to quite some controversy about its e-mail marketing and privacy policy. | 70,000,000 |
| TalentTrove | Online Talent Network | |
| Talkbiznow | Business networking | |
| Taltopia | Online artistic community | |
| TravBuddy.com | Travel | 1,588,000 |
| Travellerspoint | Travel | |
| tribe.net | General | |
| Trombi.com | French subsidiary of Classmates.com | 4,400,000 |
| Tuenti.com | Spanish-based university and High School social network. Very Popular in Spain | 4,500,000 |
| Tumblr | General. Micro-blogging, RSS | |
| General. Micro-blogging, RSS, updates | 44,500,000 | |
| V Kontakte | Russian social network | 49,025,000 |
| Vampirefreaks | Gothic and industrial subculture | 1,931,049 |
| Viadeo | European Social Networking and Campus Networking in Seven Languages | 6,000,000 |
| Vox | Blogging | |
| Wakoopa | For computer fans that want to discover new software and games. | 100,000 |
| Wasabi | General | |
| WAYN | Travel and lifestyle | 10,000,000 |
| WebBiographies | Genealogy and biography | |
| WeOurFamily | General with emphasis on privacy and security | |
| Windows Live Spaces | Blogging (formerly MSN Spaces) | 120,000,000 |
| WiserEarth | Online community space for the social justice and environmental movement | 28,300 |
| Xanga | Blogs and "metro" areas | 27,000,000 |
| Business (primarily Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and China) | 8,000,000 | |
| Xt3 | Catholic social networking, created after World Youth Day 2008 | |
| Yammer | Social networking for office colleagues | |
| Yelp, Inc. | Local Business Review and Talk | |
| Youmeo | UK Social Network (focus on data portability) | |
| Zoo.gr | Greek Web Meeting point | 890,000 |