Polling, Opinion and Q&A Sites are Redefining Social Networking

In today’s fast paced world, it is imperative to remain closely connected to one’s inner social circle in order to maintain a balanced work life. Virtual social networking has always strengthened existing relationships and contacts, and continues to provide a foundation for borderless communities based on common areas of interest. To discover and share the most reliable information available, billions of users vote, poll or answer questions in online community forums. Professional and social interactions have increased multifold due to these common needs of users.

While online forums and groups provide a broader outlook for groups of people who are already networked, these sites rarely facilitate connections and relationships between people who do not share the same interests. Some social networking portals make it much easier to develop contacts and nurture friendships beyond the borders of our real world networks. But more so, the range and diversity of conversations on some discussion boards highlight the need to broaden the capabilities of social networking portals to reach beyond one’s immediate friends and family. These discussion boards give users the opportunity to express personal opinions on a wide variety of topics and in turn nurture groups where the members can share their passionate opinions and interests with the likeminded. In particular, there are social applications on networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace that connect people through such conversations.

It is not surprising to note that Minekey, a popular discussion community, now boasts over 1.8 million users who have collectively cast over forty million votes and posted over seven million comments. Another popular discussion community, Yahoo Answers, has resolved approximately 23 million questions. Topics on both services range from fashion, babies, politics and religion to simple high school math or science. The need for accurate and complete information within conversations or to answer questions has attracted users who are on the lookout for such discussions. A site such as Minekey adds value with opinion polling and commenting, which generates responses from dedicated users who apply it as a medium for promoting and sometimes selling their own content. Though they feature opinions which are varied, these channels bring together many people who share similar ideas and interests.

The continued and growing participation of millions of users of these services demonstrates the trend that every online user is looking for a channel or medium to showcase their views. Nevertheless, every revolution has its own pitfalls. Spam, virus threats and hacking still circumvent the best security systems. Personal information continues to get shared without consent with marketing agencies, which often demoralizes regular users of these services. Users are also threatened by false information which violates their privacy, and which is designed to gain illicit access to their personal networks. These activities serve as disclaimers to enthusiastic users who only want to use these sites for knowledge pooling.

These discussion networks and communities are virtual cafeterias that nurture budding friendships and serve as vital sources of opinions and answers. They have brought together people, based on relationships of mutual sharing. This trend not only motivates users to share valuable information with one another; it also establishes the internet as a reliable source of information. Personalizing how we use discussion boards has definitely triggered a revolution in the social networking and enhances the usability and availability of information for all users.