Web 2.0 aka the "Collaborative Internet" has changed the way in which people network with each other.It has changed the way people build networks and relationships with people around them.





I would classify the internet based networking as revolution equivalent to the "Internet Email" or the "Blogs" which transformed the way in which we build relationships in the e-world.
" The last, compact, definition of Web 2.0, according to Tim O'Reilly is this one:

"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called 'harnessing collective intelligence. "

The key word that makes the Web2.0 different from its earlier avtar is the "collaboration" its multiple heads working together and adding value to each other.These are some of the networking sites on the internet that have experiemented with and my comments on them.

LinkedIn ( http://www.linkedIn.com)

This is an awesome website for "Professional Networking" it helps you create a professional profile for yourselves in a very user friendly format and its a wonderful way to keep in touch with your friends and collegues and know exactly what they are doing at a point of time.These are some of the good features of linkedIn.

LinkedIn Features
You can create a neat professional profile for yourselves and share it with your friends.It has predefined format for experience education and all the other details.

1. You can share your profile in a url to all your friends/collegues.I use it as a business card,if anybody asks me what are you doing currently I just direct them to the profile (http://www.linkedIn.com/in/rohitgambhir )
2. You can see the connections of your friends and asks your friends to refer to them.This way you can reach out to thousands of people.At this point of time I have 400 friends in the first degree and another 49000 in the second degrees.So I have a potention to reach out to nearly 49000 people through referrals.
3. It has a very effective way of adding recommendation for people.You can add or ask for recommendations for people.You can share recommendations with all the people who visit your profile.
4. It is more secure compared to Orkut or Yahoo 360.Only people who are in your network can visit your profile.
5. It has an awesome search capablity.Think of a name of your friend and search him on LinkedIn.I can bet you would find him on linkedIn.
6. It has also built in discussion forums where-in you can post your questions and people from your network can respond.
7. It has a nice dashboard which keeps you updated about the changes in your connection ie additions or changes in their jobs etc.

LinkedIn Limitations
There are a few limitations that I felt that existed in LinkedIn.

1. The performance of the website is just about average.I think its not able to keep up with the load and the number of people added.
2. I never find its user-interface very attractive and intutive.It takes a while for a person to understand how the whole thing works and and somehow the adds seemed scrambled all over the place.It seems that LinkedIn has a wonderful technical team but not a very sound UI Team.
3. There are some basic things like options to add your picture/image are missing to.All the other networking websites like Orkut,Yahoo 360,Myspace,Plaxo have this as a very basic feature but somehow LinkedIn does not want to display faces.
4. There are way too much advertisements on the website,I nearly find adds in every corner of the website.
5. The pricing for the premium customers is way to high.They should have entry level pricing which should be competetive.

Overall.LinkeIn is a wonderful website for networking in Web 2.0. It has helped me a lot in getting in touch with my friends,collegues,missing links and also helped me tremendously in building up the new links....the site has a huge first mover advantage in the "Profesional Networking" and the segment is different from Orkut,360 and myspace so dont miss the bus by not being on LinkedIn and not getting connected.The sooner you start the higher you are in the network and more connected you are ....so keep connecting .....

{ I would be adding more reviews for the websites like Orkut and Yahoo 360 soon }