Timeline: Google Buzz – can it rival Facebook?

We take them for granted nowadays, but social networking sites are actually a pretty new tool.  Web developers first started to dabble in this area in the mid 1980s, but it wasn’t until ten years later that social networking sites really started to make an impact on the World Wide Web.  Now, 15 years later, we have an abundance of social networking sites at our fingertips, the newest of which is Google Buzz.  Below is a timeline which details the history of the sites we now all know and love.

1995: Classmates.com is founded, leading the way for all future social networking sites.

1997: Six Degrees of Separation, the first ‘proper’, general use social networking site, is founded.

2001: Six Degrees‘ website shuts down.

2003: Two years after Six Degrees ended, Friendster is launched, proving to be the most successful site so far, with 3 million users in its first three months.

2003: After seeing the success of Friendster, a new social networking site, MySpace, goes live and soon becomes the most popular SNS (social networking site) on the web.

2004: ‘The Facebook‘, an SNS purely for students at Harvard University in the U.S., is created by a student from the university, Mark Zuckerberg.

2005: A new take on the idea of social networking arrives in the form of YouTube, a site which allows users to interact with each other, upload videos and share them with the world.

2005: Bebo seeks to reap some success from the online social networking market, and succeeds in making a large impact.

2006: Facebook arrives online with new, innovative aspects such as the use of applications along with features common to SNSs of the past.

2006: Twitter combines the phenomenons of blogging and social networking to provide users with a new, condensed type of SNS.

2009: Facebook is named by CompleteInc.com as the largest social networking site on the internet.

2010: The market leading search engine Google decides to take on Facebook in the realm of social networking, by activating Google Buzz.

Bournemouth: the route to happiness

I’m in this town because I go to university here.  Despite the mounting costs of what is for me, and most others, a three-year ordeal, numbers of applicants to university have shot up by 10% purely in the last year.  In fact, there has been a steady rise in demand for university places over the previous decades, resulting in more and more universities to turning up all over the place.  They’re everywhere.  Like students, actually.

Since it opened in 1992, Bournemouth University has developed… how can I put it?  A slightly questionable reputation.  Basically, it’s seen by some as the place to go if you want to get relatively­­ drunk all the time, go out practically every night and have little or no care for much else.  And yes, it is a great place for all that jolly sort of thing, but there’s so much more to Bournemouth University and to the town itself.  This wealth of choice of university means that the town, city or general area of any university is central to prospective students’ decision making in terms of which university they choose.  When I had my first visit to Bournemouth University as a bewildered little A-level student, I knew it was where I wanted to be.

On the surface, Bournemouth seems like your typical seaside town.  It’s cold, wet, but seemingly a relatively pleasant place to be.  But if you take a shovel to this surface, under the crust are a lot more reasons to why Bournemouth is so unique.

Let’s start with the obvious: the beach.  All seven golden miles of it.  Bournemouth is nationally renowned for its stunning coastline. In the summer months, thousands of tourists choose to take a break in Bournemouth.  Understandably so, seeing as the temperatures in Bournemouth can reach some of the highest Britain has to offer… we might even scrape the mid-twenties!  The popularity of Bournemouth as a holiday destination is not really surprising.  It could well be because Bournemouth gives Brits the opportunity to be as close as possible to France without actually having to get your passports out, hop on a ferry go there.

Even in the winter months, when the sun’s not quite so scorching, there is loads of other great stuff to be seen and done.  Debbie Nichols, a resident of Bournemouth for over fifty years, told me what she thought of the town.  She stood opposite me by the pier in a deep purple bomber jacket with a white wooly hat and scarf framing her face.  Clutching the lead of her Yorkshire terrier, Scotty, she smiled as she said, “I could walk along the beach for hours and hours…I don’t ever get bored of it.”

Aside from the beach, the town is a constant hive of activity.  In December, a German Christmas market fills the town square.  They have massive variety of really unusual and unique Christmas gifts on sale – a perfect place to look if you’re stuck for what to get someone.  More importantly (for me), they have excellent German food and drink on offer, too.

At this time of year, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than walking around some festive stalls equipped with a bratwürst and a glass of mulled wine, wrapped up so tight that I can barely feel my legs.  Das ist sehr gut, ja?

My online top five

These are my five favourite sites on the web.  Some may be a bit clichéd, but I like them!  Let me know your thoughts…

1. BBC Sport – The essential source for anyone who is the slightest bit interested in the sporting world!  This is a site I visit daily to catch up on everything that’s going on in the sporting world.  I know… typical man…

2. Auto Journals – An advanced interactive motor journalism site which lets users write their own portfolio of articles on their own car as well as being able to read articles by professional writers.

3. Flickr – In my opinion, the best photo sharing website.  It lets users of all photographic abilities (which is lucky for me) upload their own pictures and share them with everyone else.  The best thing about this site is the people that use it are all really encouraging and helpful in their comments on any photos you upload.

4. Esquire – Another typical male entry.  Filled with pointless humourous articles on practically everything!  I can’t explain why, but I enjoy them.

5. Leeds United – A much more personal one!  If you’re a Leeds fan, you’ll already know about this.  If you’re not… you won’t care!

Please give me your thoughts on these websites and your own favourites.  It will be interesting to see if anyone shares any of my top 5!