Common Characteristics of Successful Social Networking/Web 2.0 Sites

• require registration (f,y,m,c,b,t,s,d,i,bb
  • with valid email-address (f,y,m,c,b,s,i

• User Profile
  • user name (f, y, m, w, b, t, s, d, i, bb
  • public real name (f, y, c, b, t, d
  • real name (f, y, m, c, b, t, s, d, i, bb
  • age (y, m, c, b, s [2x], i, bb
  • profile-picture (f, (y: video-still), m, c, b, t, s [2x], i
  • contact (f, y, m, c, w, b, i
    • e-mail (f, c, w, b,
    • IM (f, m, c, b, i
    • homepage (f, y, c, b, i
  • sex (f, y, m, c, b, s [2nd], i [private], bb
  • relationship status (f, y, m, c, s [2nd]
  • interests/blurbs about oneself (f, y, m, c, w, b, s [2x]
  • job/school (f, y, m, c, b
  • location (f, y, m, c, b, s [2nd], i, bb
    • complete address (c, s [2nd]
• current status (m, c, t, s [2nd]
• favorites (inside the system, not the standardized way via feeds and manual links)
  • Users/friends (f, y, m, c, t, s, d, i
  • user contributions (f, y, c, t, d, i
  • list of friends' favorites (f, y, i
• recommendations (d,
  • from/to other users (d,
  • based on profile (
  • based on own recommendations (
  • based on own contributions (
• personalized homepage (f, y, m, c, w, b, t, s [character], d, i
• personally-styled homepage (m, w, b, t, s [character], bb

• contribute own content (f, y, m, c, w, b, t, d, i, bb
  • text [free topic, not only comment or other topic-restricted textbox] (f, c, m, w, b, (t - only 140 chars, only status), i, bb
  • video (y, m, s, bb
  • photo (f, m, c, w,(b integrates picasaweb), s [textures], bb
  • 3d models (s,
  • bookmarks (d, i,
  • files (w, bb
• tagging
  • own contributions (f, y, c, w (categories), b, d
  • people (
  • hidden/private tags (d,
• rate contributions (y, i

• create contributions collaboratively (w, s
• create a collaborative set of contributions (f, y, b [by allowing many authors], s, d, i, bb
• commenting system (f, y, m, c, w [discussion-page], b, i
• tagging other users' contributions (f, c (need to be approved),
• respond to contributions (y, w [internal backlinks], b [standard backlinks], t, (d: copy bookmark with own comment), i [standard backlinks]
• In-network-messaging (f, y, m, c, w, s, bb
• Invite friends to the site (f, c, m, t, i
• create groups of users (f, m, c, s,
• overview over changes/new contributions (f, c, w, t, i, bb

• Access Control List (f, y, m, c, b, t, s, d
  • Individual Users (
  • Groups (f, y, m, c, b, t,
  • individual acl-groups (
• RSS-feeds (f, y, b, t, d, i
• search for user contributions (f, y, w, b, d, i, bb
• search for other users (f, m, c, i
• API to include its functions in other applications/websites (f, w, b, t, s, d, i, [bb fidonet]
• API to add own functions/functions from other sites (m(very restrictive), c, b, s, [bb fidonet]
• "API" to include contributions in mash-ups/other sites (f, y, w, b, t, s, d, i, [bb fidonet]
• related contributions (y, w top-lists (f, y
  • most recommended (i,
  • best rated (y, i
  • most viewed (y,
  • most interesting/discussed/popular (f, y, d, i
  • top favorites (f, y,
  • most recent (f?, y?, d, i

According to the (popular) Web2.0 mindcloud L10N, characteristics typical for web 2.0 are:

• Participation
• Usability
• Economy
• Design
• Standardization
• Remixability
• Convergence
• Focus on Simplicity
• Joy of Use
• AJAX
• The Long Tail
• Affiliation
• CSS-Design
• Web Standards
• Microformats
• DataDriven
• OpenAPIs
• RSS
• Mobility
• Video
• Audio
• Blogs
• Social Software
• Recommendation
• Folksonomy
• Wikis