Programming Social Applications

User Friends and Connections

User friendships and connections form the basis for a social graph within the social networking container. People who build a profile will add to their network their friends, family, coworkers, and a host of other people who have some sort of social relevance in their lives, online or offline. Figure 1-2 shows a visualization of a user’s social connections.

Figure 1-2. Social profile friendships

As people build relationships within their online world, they sort those relationships into buckets, such as friends, family, or coworkers. When you develop applications, understanding the concept of these buckets will help you identify the best targeting methods for content you produce through the application.