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Mobile Social Networking
A social network is a social structure which facilitates communication between a group of individuals or organizations, which are related by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as: a special or common interest, shared values, visions, ideas, ideals, friendship, financial exchange or business.

Mobile social networking is social networking where individuals of similar interests connect with one another using the mobile phone. A current trend for Internet social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook is to develop their mobile functionality. There are also purely mobile social networks.

In addition to the pure social networking model (online and mobile), there are sub-sectors within social networking that should be considered, such as micro-blogging, dating services, media sharing platforms, etc.

Another trend is that many e-commerce brands such as Amazon are also implementing social networking elements that enable their customers to rate products, write reviews and reply to comments about a product. Integration with low-cost technologies such as VOIP is also emerging.

Mobile technologies that support social networks include SMS, MMS, WAP and Java (for applications). SMS plays a key role in social networking updates, being used in alerts, updates, uploads and sharing applications, such as:

  • Text alerts once a friend or contact has changed their profile.
  • Text alerts to announce the availability of new content.
  • SMS alerts as part of premium membership value-added services.
  • Notification of new messages, friend requests and comments.
  • Profile updates via SMS.
  • Sharing of preferences or recommendations about restaurants, movie theatres etc.
  • Uploading new contacts in social phonebooks.
  • Inviting friends and contacts to join groups or networks.
  • Downloading applications (with WAP-Push) .
  • Uploading text on discussion boards and forums, as well as wikis.
  • Micro-blogging & twittering.
  • Mobile chat & dating.
  • Virtual gifts.