Social networking sites: a trace back to their origin and growth

There are a number of Social Network Sites (SNSs) catering to different audience and various cultures across the world. Though they vary from each other based on the facilities and features provided and the audience they serve, all of them make possible web based communities of people, enabling individuals to meet, interact and share information online. Though we all enjoy the benefits of the enormous changes brought out by social networking sites in Internet based communication, our knowledge about these sites is limited to a few ones. It is interesting to know that they came in to existence more than a decade ago (though in the primary form), as most of us are hit by the wave a few years back only. In this paper, the author made an effort to unveil the history of online social networking sites back from the date of their origin in the most premature form to their days of gigantic growth and establishment as we witness today.