There are several sites and blogs that cover the social networking scene. Here are Pandia’s favorites.

The search engine marketing arena is buzzing with discussions of the importance of social media, i.e. sites where users are the main contributors to content generation.

According to Chris Sherman these include shared bookmarks and web pages (Del.icio.us, Shadows, Furl), tag engines, tagging and searching blogs and RSS feeds (Technorati, Bloglines), collaborative directories (ODP, Prefound, Zimbio and Wikipedia), personalized verticals (Google Custom Search, Eurekster, Rollyo), collaborative harvesters (Digg, Propeller and Reddit) and social Q&A sites (Yahoo Answers, Answerbag).

In addition we have the increasingly popular video sharing sites (YouTube) and sites that give users a personalized space on the Web with blog, photo sharing etc.

Pandia has several articles covering social media and social search, but there are also sites out there dedicated to social media. Here the ones we consider to be the five best:

Read/Write Web

Read/Write Web is like the Search Engine Land of Web 2.0. At the core of the site you find a blog covering Web technology news, reviews and analysis.

And yes, it also cover the search engine scene, to the extent this has a Web 2.0 connotation.

Among other topics covered you will find Web site technology and applications, online services, coverage of social media sites like Facebook and Myspace, the Internet industry, Web trends and more.

The Web page design is easy to read and not too cluttered. Its design is surprisingly “Non-2.0, but we don’t mind.

The relatively few blog categories are found at the top of the page.

Read/WriteWeb was founded and is edited by Richard MacManus, from Wellington New Zealand.

Mashable

Mashable is not as technology-oriented as Read/Write. Here the main focus is on social networks like Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Bebo and Xanga (these are actually some of the main blog categories).

The news coverage is extensive, and the blog is a must read for anyone interested in the future of the Social Web. The articles are well written and the blog is, like Read/Write, updated daily.

I you are an early adopter, i.e. the kind of person that cannot wait to get her or his hands on the next social network, Mashable has a special section for people wanting to swap invites for Web 2.0 sites that are currently in private beta mode.

Unlike Read/Write Mashable wants to be a social network in its own right. Hence there is also a Mashable Community where you can make comments, add friends, upload photos. We are not quite sure what is the value added of this community, as it is not focused on the social web scene as such. We did put up a profile of our own, though.

By the way, there is also a “Grid” you can use to find Mashable friends on other social networks. Actually, you don’t have to be a member to make use of the grid. It functions well as a repository over Web 2.0 communities.

See also the French version of Mashable.

CenterNetworks

CenterNetworks say that their site’s mission is to help industry professionals learn more about topics like social networking, Web 2.0, and social media.

Note the term “industry professionals”. This site has a stronger focus on industry development than some of the others mentioned here. That being said, anyone being interested in the Social Web will find articles and news of interest here.

There are also useful reviews of sites and online applications.

CenterNetworks has special sections for industry jobs (down at the moment), relevant conferences and a section for startup tips, all of them useful. Companies may even upload their press releases for free.

The site design is matter of fact and unpretentious.

Pronet Advertising

Neil Patel is a regular speaker at a large number of search engine marketing conferences, talking about social media and viral marketing. And he is good at it!

He and his friends have a great blog over at Pronet Advertising where they are covering digg, reddit, Facebook and all the usual (and unusual) suspects.

The site design is simplistic, uncluttered and functional.

If you are into search engine marketing, this blog should definitely the starting point for your Social Web exploration.

Trivia: Pronet also has an online computer game called Search Engine Smackdown where you can choose to be Larry, Bill, Sergey, Jerry, Paul or David in a ferocious and bloody search engine quiz. (See image above. That’s Danny Sullivan as referee!)

Somewhat Frank

The Frank of Somewhat Frank is Frank Gruber, a computer information system specialist from Virginia in the US. We took the liberty of stealing his picture.

Frank blogs on Web 2.0 applications, social media and the role of new technology on the Web.

The web design is basic and a bit cluttered, but the content is well written and he presents a wide coverage of Web 2.0 and related technologies.

On average he posts an article a day.

Other sites of interest:

Techcrunch has a much broader coverage than the other sites mentioned here. However, it is a weblog dedicated to profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies, so you will find articles on online social networks.

Solution Watch’s main focus on is on Web 2.0 products and services and in particular online software solution (software as a service). It is written by web designer and programmer Brian Benzinger.

Micro Persuasion is a blog written by Steve Rubel on “how technology is revolutionizing media and marketing.” It is definitely worth a visit.

Note that the search engine marketing scene has its own social networking site, Sphinn, which also covers social media.

Click here to discuss this story at Sphinn!

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