How will Social Networking websites look like in the future? Or more importantly, what functionality will sites such as Twitter and Facebook provide and how will we interact with friends, family and work colleagues 3 years from now.

In the coming years, Social Networking websites will more likely become the hub or portal to all our online activity:

1. email:

Most Social Networking already have a form of messaging or internal email system. Applications are already beginning to appear to incorporate existing popular email accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail into Social Networking sites. In the near future internal Social Networking sites will allow you to email people outside of the its own internal network, either via it’s own system or using a third party.

2. ecommerce:

You will already find some major online stores allowing you to purchase directly via website like Facebook. In the coming years, this will explode. I am personally waiting for supermarkets to produce applications for sites like Facebook, to allow ordering of your weekly food/grocery shop directly from your profile page.

3. businesses:

More and more business will be conducted via social networking websites. Currently, most of the main stream businesses and companies will have a social networking present for marketing purposes. In the near future, business transactions will begin to appear via your Facebook profile. For example, not only will you see an ad for car insurance, the link from that ad will not take you to an external web site, the link will take you to that companies page, where you will be able to obtain a quote, and purchase the policy directly from your social networking site.

4. marketing:

Marketing on social networking website is already widespread. In the coming years, it will be bigger business and as the ad market becomes more competative, you will only begin to see ads from the companies that have huge marketing budgets. Gone will be the days of ads from local small businesses.

5. hub/portal:

As mentioned previously, social networking websites will become a hub or portal of all your online activity. This will include all the items mentioned in this article along with many others I haven’t covered.

6. billing:

Do you have paperless billing? Do you get an email reminder when your bills are due? If so, the next step is receiving these notifications via your favourite social networking website. This could be in the form of a private message, pop up, or a private comment placed on your wall.

7. calender:

Do you already use an electronic calender and organiser? If so, there will be applications soon that will allow you to import your calender into your favourite social networking web site. You will be able to customise this to receive notifications in your desired format.