Social networking comes to the fore again. Yes, I do keep rambling on about it but its importance should not be overlooked. The most recent development from Facebook is called “Connect” and it allows Facebook users to browse other sites through their network portal. A dedicated feedback system is also incorporated so that you can check out what friends have been up to on those sites.

Such developments which effectively gather groups of people together through social networking will no doubt encourage online advertisers, but what price will the social networking sites pay in terms of spam and abuse ? Facebook have already announced that sites wishing to join Connect will be vetted, but what guidelines are they working to ? And just exactly how do they plan to vet each and everyone of those sites ?

Once again we run into issues of online privacy here too. It does show though just how effective the pull of advertisers are when it comes to shaping the future of a site.