Monday, May 28, 2012
 Before long, you won't need MySpace () or other social networks to update a user profile or check out pals online. You'll simply go to the Web sites you use to get news, watch videos, or buy and sell stuff. Companies as varied as Viacom (), eBay (), and Playboy Enterprises () are letting users form communities around common interests. It's called the social Web, and we untangle it in our annual Best of the Web Special Report. Flip through our slide show on the 25 most influential people on the Web, including the four above, to learn who's having the biggest impact on your surfing habits--and why a 76-year-old newspaper magnate makes the cut. And check out the results of a poll asking BusinessWeek readers to name the sites they crave. Also in our report: Amazon.com () CEO Jeff Bezos wants to send you into suborbital space, and why it's so hard to define--and combat--intellectual-property theft in virtual worlds like Second Life. Go to businessweek.com/go/07/bestweb for all this and more.
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Copyright 2006, Bloomberg L.P.
