The social media revolution is here. It is being considered as the biggest shift in the way people communicate since the industrial revolution and is transforming the way we live and do business.
Recent EU statistics show there are slightly more than 200,000 internet users in Malta. Social media websites are the most popular sites here, with Facebook topping the list.
This is in line with the rest of the world, where the social media has even overtaken pornography as the top activity on the web. If YouTube were a country, it would be the third most populated and Facebook the fourth.
But what is social media? These are online sites based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites and electronic media platforms, such as online newspapers which allow for user interaction.
Because of the speed at which social media enables communication, "word of mouth" has become "world of mouth".
CNN International vice President Parisa Khosravi, in Malta recently for the Newsxchange 09 international conference, said: "When some 20 years ago Ted Turner set up CNN, he wanted to turn the world into a small country. Now thanks to social media the world is truly a village."
Ms Khosravi explained how during the Iranian crisis, many of the first video and pictures did not come from CNN news reporters, as they were not allowed on the ground, but from everyday citizens using their cell phones and Twitter.
The conference brought 320 international broadcast journalists to Malta for a networking event, hosted by PBS at the Excelsior Hotel in Valletta, and the media representatives were in agreement with Ms Khosravi.
Head of Al Jazeera online, Mohamed Nanabhay said: "We have to embrace the 21st century media, otherwise the mainstream traditional media becomes a dinosaur."
People previously known as viewers are now self-organising and passing on news stories themselves as they jump from one social media site to another.
Julian March of Sky News online said: "It's either a symptom or a cause of this age of social networking that the modern consumer of news wants to participate in the news like never before."
Frederic Filloux, editor of mondaynote.com, added that "we no longer search for news, news finds us".
It is estimated Facebook currently has more than 250 million active users globally and more than 30 million update their status at least once a day. Twitter is estimated to have about eight million global users and this is growing rapidly - 80 per cent of usage is on mobile devices. Initially, Twitter - now officially a term in the English Dictionary - was where you could read about someone's minute-by-minute escapades or their pets. Today, it is where you can go for the latest news.
The online sphere is constantly shifting and statistics grow at an astronomical rate, clearly showing the impact social media has on our lives.
A new book on the topic, Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms The Way We Live and Do Business by Eric Qualman, is causing more than a little stir in the media space. A video based on the book has had record viewership as it highlights some shocking facts, among them that one out of eight couples who married in the US last year met via social media, and that Wikipedia is considered to be more accurate than Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Mr Qualman, vice president of online marketing for EF Education in Switzerland, said: "In the near future we will no longer search for products and services; they will find us via social media."
The top 20 websites in Malta*
1. facebook.com: a social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos.
2. google.com.mt: the Maltese version of this pre-eminent search engine, offering Maltese-specific pages as well as world results.
3. google.com: enables users to search the web, Usenet, and images.
4. youtube.com: upload, tag and share your videos worldwide.
5. live.com: Windows live a search engine from Microsoft.
6. yahoo.com: personalised content and search options.
7. wikipedia.org: an online collaborative encyclopaedia.
8. timesofmalta.com: The Times and The Sunday Times (Malta).
9. msn.com: Microsoft Network (MSN) Dialup access and content provider.
10. ebay.co.uk: person to person online auction site where you can buy or sell new and used items.
11. blogger.com: free, automated weblog publishing tool that sends updates to a site via FTP.
12. hi5.com: social network.
13. ebay.com: international person to person auction site, with products sorted into categories.
14. google.co.uk: the British version of the search engine, offering UK-specific pages as well as world results.
15. twitter.com: social networking and microblogging service utilising instant messaging.
16. go.com.mt: Go Mobile.
17. bing.com: search engine.
18. bbc.co.uk: the latest news, sport, travel, finance and weather from the BBC.
19. livejasmin.com: Live Sex - Private Time with online models.
20. imdb.com: The Internet Movie Database
* Data according to www.alexa.com traffic ranking.
The Times joins the social revolution
The online version of The Times and The Sunday Times, timesofmalta.com, ranks as the eighth most popular site in Malta, according to the web information site Alexa.com.
It is the only local media site which makes it to the top 20.
The website embraces the fact that technology is working in favour of journalism and encourages crowd sourcing. The popularity of the website has not affected the print version, according to Alexa.com, with circulation figures remaining stable.
Ranking of other local media sites:
• di-ve.com ranks at 37th place
• maltarightnow.com ranks 59th
• maltastar.com ranks 117th
• l-orizzont.com ranks 296th
• maltamediaonline.com ranks 503rd
• pbs.com.mt ranks 2,646th
• xarabank.com ranks 3,505th