The social network — the umbrella term for features of a website which allow users to track their friends — is past its peak. Mentions in the press of "social network" or another even uglier phrase, "social networking", reached 1,158 in September, but have declined since. That could mean a decline in media nterest in sites like Myspace and Facebook or, more likely, an acceptance that all media will be social, all successful sites will allow users to "friend" eachother, and that it's no longer interesting to spotlight a feature so ubiquitous.

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