What are social networking services?

As part of Denizen’s Young People and Social Networking Services report Josie Fraser provides a useful and succinct (as it can be) summary of definitions of Social networking Services which “splits services up into six main categories: Profile-based services (eg Bebo, Facebook, MySpace); Content-focused services (eg Flickr, YouTube); White-label networks (although I could have written a book about these); Multi-User Virtual Environments (although some of these aren’t necessarily social networks – particularly those designed for younger children); Mobile services; and Microblogging/Presence update services (Social Search engines & Lifestream aps also get a mention as adjunct services).”

Josie’s full social-networking-overview may well be a useful resource for PERSoNA