Millions of us have already joined in the social networking phenomenon that has swept over the online world. In fact, many of us are members of multiple social networking sites because we have various interests or purposes for networking. Whether it’s getting a chance to express yourself and speak your mind, sharing your interests, spreading the latest news, connecting with old friends or making new ones, social networking sites have given us a space to connect personally and professionally with the world.

We’re all familiar with the current leading players in the social networking realm such as Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace and LinkedIn, who have all earned their rightful place in the social network rankings. But what about the other hundreds of social networking sites that have the potential to be the next “it” site to the new generation of network-hungry, blog-obsessed, tweet-crazed online users? Here’s a run-down of some other popular social networking websites out there.

• Bebo.com – Bought by AOL, this site has been gaining ground in the U.S. Bebo allows users to personalize their profile, add applications, set privacy settings and join groups. Their personalization choices are numerous and their security measures are good.
• Flickr.com – Owned by Yahoo, this site allows users to share and comment on photos and images. It allows paid members to store short videos. It also serves as a popular image repository among bloggers.
• Friendster.com – Friendster has an assortment of features to customize a profile with more than 250 different applications that a user can add. Privacy settings allow users to see the last 100 people who have viewed their profile and set limits or blocks.
• Hi5.com – Hi5 is created and headquartered in the United States, but it is more popular in other countries, particularly in Latin America. It offers a variety of features such as chat rooms, groups and profile customization and is … wait for it … completely advertisement free.
• Ning.com – Ning is an online platform for people who want to create their own social networks around specific interests with their own visual design, choice of features and member data.
• Orkut.com – This site is Google’s attempt at social networking. In order to open an Orkut account you must have a Gmail account where all your updates, message and requests are forwarded. Orkut follows a similar path as FaceBook and does not have any profile customization options, but you can upload photos, create albums and add apps like other sites.