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Over 10B Social Network Accounts Created Already
siliconbits writes "Analyst firm In-stat has calculated that well over 10 billion social networking and online world accounts have been created by the end of 2010 with nearly half of them (4.5 billion) still active. The growth of free social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter can be credited for the exponential rise in the number of so-called SNOW accounts. Where before, virtual worlds were the realm of paid-for subscription-based gaming services like World of Warcraft, the pervasiveness and ease of access of the newcomers means that more people are creating accounts online than ever before."
...rise in the number of so-called SNOW accounts.
What's a SNOW account?
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
Four billion of which are Twitter spam bots.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you IANASNOW. Well, I'm not. What would be more interesting to me, from a statistical point of view, is;-
a) how many of those 'still active' accounts are actually 'still used', and how many are dead accounts that people just couldn't be arsed to go through the agro of trying to close down
b) how many people actually own those 10bn accounts? I'm sure that there are many people out there who have a Twitter, FB, My[ ], WoW, 2nd Life etc - so how many billion individual people are actually on social networking / on-line world accounts.
Statistically I suspect that will show that I am still, statistically at least, 'normal'.
These numbers really cant be real, there isn't any real way to getting these numbers apart from the soucrce of the website, even then the numbers will be constantly changing and huge huge numbers of the accounts are fakes, inactive or bots.
I have a twitter account and clear out followers now and then. Most of them seem to be of the sort which sign up, post a link to their secret fat burning system and then disappear (Remove unwanted fat - Deluxe In-Home Guillotine Kit!)
In some headline I saw somewhere, could even have been /., 0.5% do 80% of the nattering.
Squeaky wheels and the cattle who listen to them, I guess.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I've created several thousand, and that's not even counting my slashdot accounts. Took me quite a few tries over the years to finally get a palindromic account id.
"The growth of free social networking websites like Facebook or Twitter can be credited for the exponential rise in the number of so-called SNOW accounts. Where before, virtual worlds were the realm of paid-for subscription-based gaming services like World of Warcraft, the pervasiveness and ease of access of the newcomers means that more people are creating accounts online than ever before."
Comparing a website to a 3d persistent game world is beyond dumb. While both have a social interactivity component, they are completely different animals and experiences, their only commonality being that they are online.
Four-digit slashdot ID. Recognize.
So, there are 10 Billion social network accounts and only 7 billion people on Earth. People, there can only be one answer!
Space Liens are using Earth's social network sites!
Alien's, if you're reading this now, you have everything to fear! Stay hidden!
More than likely, you're pretty tasty and if you have an orifice, you're probably a good fuck for many people out there!
Hide for your LIVES!!!
If they're on the intarwebs already they know where you are hiding. Fear not, stout fellow, they aren't here to abduct and probe you, they're here to bore you with the details of their dreary lives on Planet 470932, where life has degenerated to the point they watch Flash ads from Earth for the thrill of it.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Mark Zuckerberg must feel
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
I read "10B" as 267 decimal. Since when has "B" meant "Billion"?
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
2009 est world population 6,775,235,741.
and I think most of them are gold sellers on my World of Warcraft server.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
"Two girls for every boy!"
Set your phasers on "funky"!
This reminds me of a satire (Mad or Cracked magazine) on how the military can create impression of more units than they have. One concept presented are tanks with large mirrors mounted in front facing the vehicle, likewise for the rear. Multiple reflections creates illusion of a column of hundreds of tanks (like what you see when standing between two mirrors). Another were inflatable soldier standups like those that when pushed over they right themselves back up. These are described as lightweight, quickly inflatable and easy transport (shows a suitcase titled, "Caution: Contains US Army").
Regarding all these social networks, I think many are simply alias of same people (same person will have one for their regular persona, and several others for their alternative personas). There may be several others where people lost password so they create another. And a lot of others with too much time to spare (except posting to /. of course).
mfwright@batnet.com
... and we become more isolated as the number of accounts increase.
Where before, virtual worlds were the realm of paid-for subscription-based gaming services like World of Warcraft...
...except that before that, virtual worlds were mostly MUDs, MUSHes, MUCKs, MOOs and such, which were almost all free.
But I guess that history is too ancient for these "Analysts" to be aware of.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
I was wondering about that to, but I guess they added Facebook, Twitter, Hyves and everything else. These demograpics overlap a lot. I would presume 95% of the people who have a Hyves account would have a Facebook and a twitter account as well. This would lower the total people to about 5G. Add a percentage of spammers (guestimated at 50%) and you have only 2.5G left. Remove padding by the operators of those networks and my guess would be about 1G. Still a lot, but not more than the total number of people on this planet. If you chose to remove the aliens, I'd guess only 1M would be left. I however would like to welcome the aliens, and wouldn't exclude them.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
It may be the greatest source of free intelligence on the entire planet. However, the signal to noise ration sucks.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_tank/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_dummy/
The specific implementation presented by whatever magazine you were reminded of may not have been an implementation that's ever been used, but the concept itself has been around a while, and is not limited to jokes in satire magazines.