The success of social networking sites like Blogger, Xanga and YouTube has given birth to a new era in Internet usage. A study by Nielson/NetRatings shows that the top social networking sites experienced a 47% growth in the past year with a whopping 367% growth for MySpace.

Some people are afraid of the potential negative impact these sites may have on our children whereas social scientists and others see it as a beneficial aspect of today’s society. Also applauding the rise of social networking are online marketers who have struck a proverbial goldmine for selling their wares.

The multiple facets of these sites make it possible for the marketer to not only, make enormous returns on the dollars invested, but to actually meet more individuals and companies that they can form a business relationship with. This flexibility is an incredible advantage for like-minded people.

MySpace has lorded it over the other social networking sites both in the United States and in the United Kingdom (where there are 2.3 million users). With an estimated 13 thousand new users everyday, there are probably around 5 million MySpace members by end of this year in UK alone.

Even though MySpace couldn’t command a penny more that a $1 Billion from Google to buy a stake in their company (/sarcasm), it does bode well even for the smaller players in this industry. You may yet see some social networks set up for the benefit of their members, not just their owners.

MySpace boasts of achieving the 100 millionth account mark in August last year. It has over 300 million registered accounts as of December 18, 2007 and continues to attract 230,000 new account registrants on a daily basis. The efficacy of MySpace as a social networking site is evident with the existing profiles of some candidates for the 2008 US Presidential elections on MySpace.

Even though it seems like there is no limit to the growth of sites like Youtube and MySpace, it is always good to keep your eyes open for other start-ups that could just be a month or two away from the explosive growth of the other giants in the industry. More focused networking sites like GibLink could become the desired areas for likeminded people to gather and communicate.

While the internet remains a vast uncharted region that seems to have no boundaries in regards to the amount of money that can be potentially made, it is refreshing to see an company, like GibLink, that has the same potential as any of the giants, give back to the members that have made it what it is and what it will be in the future.

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