Once upon a time, 6 degrees of separation was an overestimate - uttered with a hope that one day, we’d all be connected …

Joined Orkut, Friendster , Hi5, Myspace, Twitter, … ?

Now, here comes the overload !

Name

Description/Focus

43 Things

Tagging

Advogato

Free Software and Open Source developers

aSmallWorld

European jet set and social elite

Amiworthit

Mutually good-looking students

BlackPlanet.com

African-Americans

Bebo

Schools and colleges

Blue Dot

Link sharing

Broadcaster.com

Video sharing and webcam chat

Blurty

Blogs, based on LiveJournal

Bolt

General (music and video)

CarDomain

Car enthusiasts

Care2

Green living and activism

Classmates.com

School, college, work and the military

Consumating

“Consumeetings”

Cyworld

Young South Koreans

Dandelife

Collective narratives or “shared biographies”

DeadJournal

“Dark” blogs, based on LiveJournal

Delhii

Mongolia

Dodgeball.com

Mobile location-based service, owned by Google

DontStayIn

Clubbing (primarily UK)

Doostang

Careers

Ecademy

Business

eSPIN

Teen Dating

Facebook

College/High School students

Facebox

European young adults (14-24)

Faceparty

British teens and 20-somethings

Flirtomatic

Flirting/Dating

Flickr

Photo sharing

Fotki

Photo sharing

Friends Reunited

School, college, work, sport and streets

Friendster

General

Frühstückstreff

General

Gaia Online

Anime and Games

Gazzag

General

Geni.com

Families, genealogy

GoPets

Virtual pets

Graduates.com

School, college, and work

GreatestJournal

Blogs, based on LiveJournal

Grono.net

Poland

Hi5

General

Hyves

General; focus on students and Dutch speakers

imeem

Instant messaging

IMVU

3D chat software

IRC-Galleria

Finland

iWiW

Hungary

Joga Bonito

Football (soccer)

Kincafe

Families, family tree

Last.fm

Music

LinkedIn

Business

LiveJournal

Blogging

LunarStorm

Sweden

MEETin

General

Meetup.com

General

MiGente.com

Latinos

Mixi

Japan

MOG

Music

Multiply

“Real world” relationships

MySpace

General

myYearbook

General

Nexopia

Canada

orkut

Owned by Google

Passado

General

Phrasebase

Foreign Languages (education)

Piczo

Teenagers, Canadians, photo sharing

Playahead

Swedish teenagers

ProfileHeaven

British teens

RateItAll

Consumer ratings + social networking

Reunion.com

Locating friends and family

Ruckus

Music

Ryze

Business

Sconex

American high schools

Sportsvite

Recreational Sports

Studivz

University students, mostly in the German-speaking countries

Stumbleupon

Websurfing

TagWorld

General (tagging)

TakingITGlobal

Social action

The Student Center

Teens and colleges

Threadless

Custom T-shirts

Travellerspoint

Travel

Tribe.net

General

Twitter

Update friends with your status through SMS, IM, web interfaces

Vampire Freaks

Gothic industrial culture

VietSpace

Vietnamese

Vox

Blogging

WAYN

Travel & Lifestyle

WebBiographies

Genealogy & Biography

Windows Live Spaces

Blogging (formerly MSN Spaces)

Xanga

Blogs and “metro” areas

XING

Business

Xuqa

Colleges

Yahoo! 360°

Linked to Yahoo! IDs

Yelp

United States adults

Zaadz

Social consciousness

All these sites - do they reduce the degrees of separation ? Probably they do - much more than you can imagine … It’s not 6 degrees of separation anymore - except for people on the other side of the digital divide. What is happening here ? Is there going to be an apocalypse ? Wait and see …