2008 year in review: Social networking

2008 year in review: Social networking

The key social networking stories from 2008 highlight the main trends of increasing consumer adoption and continued caution on the part of organisations about getting involved in the social networking revolution.

As the number of users grew ever higher, driving growth particularly in the uptake of the mobile web, companies displayed an ambiguous attitude to social networking sites.

Some recognised the benefits for business-to-consumer purposes, while others continued to live in fear of the impact on staff productivity and information security.

Some high-profile reports urged governments and businesses to get involved in social networking, but other research warned that security concerns for individuals and firms are still well founded in some cases.

The major public social networks, meanwhile, continued to refine and update their services, designing-in better usability and enhanced security, and making greater efforts to foster openness.

And finally, on the pure-play corporate side, some big software companies continued to show their interest in this 21st century phenomenon by engineering enterprise social networking tools and reaching out in greater numbers to existing public social networks.