Social Software

Techopedia explains Social Software

Other less common social software categories include the following:

• Social Network Search Engines: These are a class of search engines which filter results, usually in one of two categories: Explicit – explicitly stated social relationships such as friends, relatives or co-workers; and Implicit – allows people to find others within a social network they trust, for example, one with a common point of view, possibly political or religious.
• Deliberative Social Networks: These are designed for discussion, debate and decision-making; they often are used to establish relationships between individuals and government.
• Commercial Social Networks: These are designed to create brand loyalty and use customers to solicit ideas for improving products, product delivery and service.
• Social Guides: These recommend places for travelers to visit, eat and be entertained.
• Social Bookmarking: These allow individuals to share their bookmarks or “favorites” allowing others to select from among favorite websites. Enterprises may have similar social software allowing sharing of business-pertinent websites. These are called enterprise bookmarking.
• Social Cataloging: These are common among academics, consisting of collections of citations or sources of information about common subjects of research or study.
• Social Online Storage: These are file archives of many types and often use peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, allowing public distribution and file sharing.
• Virtual Worlds: These allow individuals to meet and interact with other people in a fictitious virtual environment, often using chat or voice chat features, which is sometimes referred to as virtual reality.

But social software also has its critics, especially in the business environment where employees may consume significant time using social software. Perceived social obligations through many contacts may take considerable time and create distractions from the daily work and responsibilities - affecting dozens and sometimes thousands of employees. While each contact may be very brief, the accumulative affect on an enterprise may be significant enough to affect productivity.