By now you've probably seen the Hitwise stats on social network growth (or lack of it in MySpace's case). If not, here are the numbers:
| Market share of U.S. Internet visits to top five social networking Web sites | ||||||
| Rank | Name | Domain | September 2009 | August 2009 | September 2008 | Year-over-year percent change |
| 1 | | 58.59% | 55.15% | 19.94% | 194% | |
| 2 | MySpace | 30.26% | 33.00% | 66.84% | -55% | |
| 3 | Tagged | 2.38% | 2.36% | 1.62% | 47% | |
| 4 | | 1.84% | 1.95% | 0.15% | 1170% | |
| 5 | myYearbook | 1.05% | 1.16% | 1.76% | -40% | |
With a 194% growth rate, Facebook is becoming the operating system of the social Web, a social utility that wants to be the central hub of all your social network engagement. Thanks to Facebook Connect, it could do that too. At 1170% growth rate, the new kid on the block, Twitter, is kicking butt and taking names.
MySpace market share continues to decline. No surprise there. It has quarantined itself as an entertainment-oriented site. But, what about Tagged.com? Out of the 155 social networks included in the Hitwise survey, how does it end up in the #3 slot?
Some facts about Tagged.com:
- Founded in 2004 by two Harvard grads. It is a privately-held company
- Reached profitability in 2007
- Has been called the world's most annoying Website by Time magazine
- Subject of numerous customer complaints for sending deceptive bulk email
- Considered a phishing and spamming site.
The latter two points weren precisely my experience and exactly why you need to leave Tagged.com alone, regardless of its ranking. Don't go anywhere near this site!
In 2007, a received an invitation to join Tagged by someone I thought I could trust, so I did. Not unlike many other social networks, Tagged asked for access to my Gmail account to see if there were other friends of mine using Tagged that I could connect with. I gave it permission. What happened next was a complete disaster!
Tagged sent out email invitations to everyone in my Gmail address book (over 1100). Talk about egg on my face. I had to apologize to a whole host of people.
The question still remains, how did Tagged work its way into the #3 slot? Through spam, deception, phishing, that's how. Numbers don't tell the whole story.
Bottom line: Facebook, yes; Twitter, yes; MySpace, sure why not...help Rupert out; but, Tagged, no way, nohow. Regardless of its ranking, avoid this site at all possible costs!
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