I discovered a interesting compilation of data about various popular social networks, obtained by Google Adplaner and Google Insights. The report is entitled The 2008 Social Network Analysis Report – Geographic – Demographic and Traffic Data Revealed.

Data provided for Facebook seems quite interesting; while initially targeting colleges, most of the current users seems to be older, according to the information provided by Google. This is even more visible for the micro-blogging service Twitter. When looking at LinkedIn, the majority of the users seem to be in the post collage age, earn more money and has a higher education. Considering LinkedIn as a “network for professionals”, this is not unexpected. However, one has to rely on the validy of the data provided by a third-party.

There are a lot of social networks available, dedicated to different needs. However, there is none focusing on researcher as clientele. This seems to be changing with Mendeley, a social network dedicated to scientists. The site is still in the early beta phase and lacks of a lot of users, but already seems promising. Mendeley provides a client–which is also available for Linux and runs fine on my 64 bit Ubuntu installation–which allows managing ones publications and synchronises with the Mendeley profile.

As I want to explore this new network, I created my Mendeley profile just a couple of hours ago. Unlike the experiences made by Daniel Lemire, importing my publications from a BibTeX database was fairly easy. A feature that I’m missing currently is to publish a less detailed CV like it is possible in LinkedIn; when providing details about my education or professional experience, I’m enforced also to provide dates.