How Social Networking Works

[ Thanks to Steven J.
Vaughan-Nichols for this link. ]

“I’m on a social network; you’re on a social network,
these days it seems we’re all on at least one social network–like
Facebook, Twitter, etc. etc–if not two, three, or even more.

“To be exact, the Pew Internet & American Life
Project’s December 2008 tracking survey found that 35% of
adult internet users now have a profile on an online social network
site. If you’re a teenager, the numbers jump to 65%, but, it’s the
young adults who really are behind the social networks. 75% of them
belong to at least one social network. Since then, the social
networks have only continued to grow at an explosive rate.

“How do the social networks manage millions of users and
hundreds of millions of updates? The answers lie in open-source
software and thousands of servers. Let’s take a look behind the
doors of a few top social networks — Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook,
and MySpace — and see exactly how they pull their tricks off.”

Complete Story