The last year of the first decade of 21st century is coming to an end, and before we enter 2010, we should analyze how things fared in this year. Lots of things have changed: Obama got elected as the first president born in Hawaii as well as 44th and current President of the United States, and later on polemically chosen for the Nobel peace prize.

Lot many things happened on the web as well in terms of social sites. Some website became a major hit while others slipped down to oblivion. This article will analyze the top 10 social websites of 2009.

Twitter rocks in 2009

If you need an introduction about twitter then you must have lived your last 2-3 years in some freaky isolated island. In 2009, Twitter was the force to reckon with. Twitter is a micro blogging tool, it is a search engine, it is a job portal, it’s a recommendation engine; it is everything that you could have ever imagined the web to be. Twitter and its ecosystems of third-party (API-based) developers have made this a formidable force. Facebook should watch out for this 140-character phenomenon.

Who could have imagined en-cashing the power of speaking less, if not twitter, and who could have imagined posting images, videos, contests, etc., in this little a space. Twitter is evolving and so are we. Twitter has also replaced Digg as a link sharing and discovering engine. In 2009, Retweet badge was more famous than the Digg badge.

Facebook: 350 million active users now.

To no one’s surprise, Facebook is at number two slot. It has been a huge phenomenon in 2009 as well. Facebook now has more citizens (if we count users as citizen) then the population of many European nations. So far, more than 50,000 applications have been developed on Facebook platform, more than 80,000 websites uses Facebook connect instead of regular signup page. More than 60 million users are now using Facebook connects to sign up different websites.

Addictive Facebook games and funny quizzes are the propeller that has helped Facebook maintain its position in 2009 as well, and to surprise you all with this interesting fact that About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States. Read more Facebook statistics here.

YouTube: Shares huge chunk of internet traffic.

I do not think anyone needs to know what YouTube it. The data from Quantcast says YouTube has around 85 million visitors. This video sharing website has become synonymous with the video content on the Internet. Many web publishers use YouTube to upload and promote their video content. The videos posted on YouTube can then shared on the web using any of the contemporary tools using the unique HTML codes.

MySpace: 70.9 million US Visitors.

MySpace once was at the top of any list of social media, no matter how you made the list, but in last couple of years, it was dethroned by Facebook. MySpace may have lost its past glory, but it still is capable to hold 4th position on this list of top 10 social sites of 2009. MySpace came into existence in 2003, and since then it underwent many changes. In last two years alone, MySpace has many times redesigned its layout, and added new functionality. MySpace now hosts its own video sharing service.

Flickr: Store more photos in 2009

If YouTube has changed the way we view videos on the Internet, Flickr has altered the way we store and share images on web. This is the largest image sharing website, and despite competition from Picasa and other image sharing services, Flickr has managed to retain its leadership position in 2009 as well. It also allows you to build network of like minded people, and restrict access to your images. Flickr gives you full control on who can see your image and who cannot. You can also restrict downloading of the image.

Hulu: The pay TV killer

Hulu has made it possible for us to legally watch TV for free on the Internet wherever and whenever we wish. The website has complete episodes of TV shows, full-length movies, just-for-web videos, etc., for us to watch. Hulu shows commercial-supported streaming videos of content produced by NBC, ABC, Fox, and other major networks. Its rising popularity graph has made me include it in this top 10 list. Here is an interesting chart shows Hulu Has More Viewers Than Time Warner Cable.

LinkedIn: 45 Million users and strong.

LinkedIn is not for armatures. It is a business networking website launched in May 2003. LinkedIn has more than 50 million registered users from 200 countries. It has gained popularity as a job and opportunity search engine. People recommend others for the job, and employers use this service to offer job. LinkedIn has become a Facebook for business, and it is undisputed leader of its domain. Once there was Ryze, now we have LinkedIn.

Digg: More interesting stories

Digg is still my favorite for discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet. Being on the front page of Digg is every blogger and website owners dream. Being on the front page of Digg for one day (or may be 6 hours) is far sexier than being on The New York Times’ best selling list for a month. This is the power of Digg. Digg has retained its influence on the web for many years, and the inclusion of this social bookmarking site at number 8 is a proof of that.

Friendfeed growing users after Facebook acquires.

Friendfeed allows you to collect and share information with your friends. It allows you to make custom feed from the content shared by your friends on other collaboration sites. You can make feed from the shared photograph, news, articles, videos, interesting links, and personal messages sent to you. This is cool tool to keep tab on everything that your friends share at different places on the Internet.

Meetup

Meetup is a social networking site with a difference. Instead of focusing on pulling in visitors and keeping them hooked to its website, Meetup helps user form local groups or find one already being used to meet people with similar taste face-to-face. This is the world’s largest network of local groups. The focus is on reviving local community.

Popularity: 15% [?]