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Social engine
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A social engine is a hybrid between a Social Network and a Search Engine. The term social engine is the shortened version of the term social networking engine which provides a software development framework for developing social applications and a platform for hosting them. A social engine (or social networking engine) acts as a web based operating system for developing all kinds of social networking websites and services. A few examples of open source social engines are: Elgg Social Networking Engine, Anahita Social Networking Engine, Appleseed Project, and Diaspora Project. Terminology The prefix social has been used by services such as Facebook to emphasize the fact that a feature or service is related to social networking. For example the terms Social Plugins or Social Graph used by the Facebook team. The term engine in software refers to Software engine which basically provides the core functionality of a computer program. The terms Social Engine and Social Networking Engine have become more of household terms similar to Game engine and Search engine since many social networking projects have realized that social networking cannot be just added to an existing service such as CMS or Web_2.0 software. In fact applications are built in a social context and installed on a social engine platform which becomes the web operating system for the social applications. The same fashion that applications can be installed on a copy of Mac OSX, Linux, or Windows operating systems. By this definition services such as facebook or Twitter which allow APIs for facebook apps or twitter apps are also considered social engines. Same applies to open source projects such as Elgg, Diaspora, Anahita, Appleseed, etc. David Ferguson, Facebook Engineering Manager has once mentioned at a "You build things on top of social, you don't' try to build social into products". Examples *Trexy permits users to record and share “search trails” of their activity on search engines, which themselves are searchable and usable by other searchers. *Wink provides people search across social networks, and Web search based on user input. 
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