Online socializing: Latest data

The Top 10 social-networking sites now reach a whopping 45% of active Web users, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, which just released its latest figures on the phenomenon's growth and popularity. Together, the ten sites have grown 47% in the past year (from 46.8 million unique visitors in April 2005 to 68.8 million last month). "The two biggest surges came from MySpace, which grew from 8.2 million users in April 2005 to 38.4 million last month, and MSN Spaces, up from 1.9 million to 7.1 million over the same period," reported the Washington Post. The study illustrates how new and loosely defined this user-driven part of the Web is – some of the Top 10 are more about blogging, or creating your own Web page (MSN Spaces and Blogger), some more about media-hosting (YouTube), and others more about socializing (MySpace and MSN Groups) - though all have aspects of each, and the lines keep getting more blurry! Nielsen's Top 10 are: MySpace, Blogger, Classmates Online, YouTube, MSN Groups, AOL Hometown, Yahoo! Groups, MSN Spaces, SixApart TypePad, and Xanga. [If this were about the top social-networking sites among teens, the list would include Facebook, MyYearbook, Hi5, and Friendster, as eMarketer reported in March (see "Teen traffic").] Here's WebProNews on the Nielsen report.