Vkontakte.ru
historyVkontakte.ru () is the most popular social networking site in Russia and Ukraine. »http://roem.ru/2007/10/01/vkontakte/ Because of its design and functionality, Vkontakte.ru is often claimed to be a clone of Facebook,»Copycats: Top 10 International Facebook Clones accommodating not only a very similar concept, but also a comparable business model.»Topical news on - TopicPlus.com » Blog Archive » Baker’s dozen of a Runet As of January 2, 2009, the network has more than 24 million users.»Main page of vkontakte.ru
Since 2007, major Russian companies have been sending job offers via Vkontakte.ru.»"Consort-Peterburg - HR Experts Debate Networking Sites" Most of the site's users are university and high school students. However, as the site's popularity increases, more and more people are joining, many of whom are youths of various age groups.
Translated into English, "V Kontakte" means "In Contact".
Functionality
The site's functionality includes personalized pages, easy access to friends pages and news, a photo- and videohosting, a simple messaging system, groups that users can participate in, and notes. Almost all of the information provided by users is a subject to easy search, therefore people are able to look for those with similar interest, school, places of birth, etc. New features are being added to the website from time to time, such as ability to host audiofiles in groups and personal pages, "Opinions" function allowing one to express personal thoughts about a friend on the network anonymously, "Offers" to ask people whether one wants to do something together with the user, "Questions" to answer the question that is asked by user and "Applications", containing Flash API based games, tools, chat rooms etc.
Privacy
Users have the ability to control the availability of their content, for instance it is possible to hide one's pictures, videos, and entire pages. Users can also choose who can invite them to groups, write personal messages, write on their wall, and so forth. It is claimed that the site content is not indexed by the search engines
Popularity
The number of registered users of the site is consistently rising. According to Alexa.com, the site is the most popular and most visited site in Russia and Ukraine and is the second most popular in Kazakhstan and third in Belarus. It also generates more traffic than other popular social networking sites, such as bebo.com, ranking 24th in overall traffic world-wide.»http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/vkontakte.ru
April Fool's Day joke
On April Fool's Day an alternate interface and language was added, "nostalgic". Instead of VKontakte, the name was changed to VSoyuze (In Union). A hammer and sickle were added next to the logo, and the language of the pages has changed as well, to phrases normally associated with Soviet Russia. For example, instead of "My Friends", the button said "My Comrades". Although it was an April Fool's Day joke, the user can still change the language and interface to this "nostalgic" setting, in site's language settings. The joke domain »www.vsojuze.ru is still active.»The April Fools Day joke main page
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