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2.3. Vertical portals: analysis and comparaison

There are of course too much portals on the web, we won't list and analyse eachone. Nevertheless we have selected the most populars and the most interesting.

2.3.1. Horizontal portals

2.3.1.2. MySpace

According to Alexa Internet, MySpace is currently the world's sixth most popular English-language website and the sixth most popular website in any language, and the third most popular website in the US, though it has topped the chart on various weeks. The service has gradually gained more popularity than similar websites to achieve nearly 80% of visits to online social networking websites. It has become an increasingly influential part of contemporary popular culture, especially in English speaking countries [21].

The big problem is that MySpace pages are designed by individuals with little HTML experience so a very large proportion of pages do not satisfy the accessibility criterias laid down by the W3C [21].

Because MySpace is the biggest SNS, and also the most horizontal one, we have just noticed that a lot of people are shifting from MySpace to more vertical sites (e.g. college student moving on Facebook) [22].

MySpace is the biggest SNS because a lot of people basically thought that the best is the biggest. But finally users have realized that they want to meet people with common interests so they are moving to more vertical SNSs. This phenomenon should increase when portals will be able to import remote profiles.

2.3.1.3. Facebook

We can't consider Facebook as a vertical web site even if we have seen people shift from MySpace. Indeed Facebook is trying to become the biggest SNS, so it has left his first goal: being a social networking site for college students.

2.3.1.4. Friendster

Friendster was considered the top online social network service until around April 2004 when it was overtaken by MySpace in terms of page views, mainly because MySpace was much more customizable, handling video and audio.

2.3.1.6. Tribe

You can import/export a FOAF file.

2.3.1.7. Cyworld

90 percent of South Koreans in their 20s and 25 percent of the total population of South Korea are registered users of Cyworld, and as of September 2005, daily unique visitors are about 20 million [25].

The miniroom concept is really a good idea. The site is highly focused on customization.

2.3.1.8. Orkut

Brazilian Orkut visitors counts for 72.5% of the total users. [24]

2.3.1.9. Bebo

Bebo announced on March 2007 that it was the most popular website in Ireland [23].

2.3.1.. Others horizontal portals studied

You can also find in our summary table: Multiply, Yahoo 360, TagWorld, Imeem.

2.3.2. Vertical portals and niches

2.3.2.1. Dodgeball

Interesting service focusing on geolocating users, the service is mainly used through mobiles. Unfortunately, that's the only one interesting functionnality.

2.3.2.3. Community Connect (AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, MiGente, Glee)

Community Connect was basically focused on creating portal for US ethnic groups. They currently publish the three largest niche-targeted communities: AsianAvenue.com (Asian), BlackPlanet.com (African American) and MiGente.com (Latino).

But they have also created Glee.com (for Gays and lesbians) and Faithbase.com (for Christians).

All sites are using the same template and the same functionalities so they are grouped in the summary table with the name "Community Connect".

Joga

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Ning

With Ning you can create your own vertical portal, restricting registration and selecting your own functionalities.

PeopleAggregator

!!

2.3.1.. Others vertical portals studied

You can also find in our summary table: Hi5 (Students), Ryze (Business), Studi (European Students), Zaadz (Thinkers, Changing the world), Piczo (kids & pre-teens, mainly UK & Canada), Skyblog (Teens, mainly French)

2.3.3. Analyse

2.3.3.1. When everything becoming vertical

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2.3.3.2. Migration

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2.3.4. Summary table

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