The real internet freak is occupied daily with maintaining his animals on the farm, doing quizzes, leaving messages to a friend or sharing with others what he's doing.

In short, Facebook rules when it comes to social networking sites. These days plenty of applications for mobile phones and smartphones that give the possibility to share your private life when no PC is around. The console gamer on the other hand has had to do without social networking for a long time; it remained impossible to combine gaming with that social aspect. Until now, that is, as Microsoft is launching its "Social Networking Experience" on the Xbox360. It allows to be on Facebook even more, but what with gamers that don't have Facebook yet? Are they now forced to take part in this social hype?

The newest update introduces more than just a Facebook application. Other well-known internet phenomena also make their appearance including Twitter, Last.FM and Zune. How everything exactly works you can read below.

Facebook

I've never been a big fan of Facebook and becoming member was one of the last things I wanted to do. Until Microsoft arrived with a preview of their latest update. In order to thoroughly test everything I started with the creation of a profile. Selecting some friends and friends of friends which Facebook linked back to me. Smart networking site! Afterwards you can upload a picture but apparently Facebook already had a couple of pics of me which I would have preferred to not see online. Apparently the "license agreement" nobody ever reads should state: "From this moment on you give up all privacy".

Once everything was set up I started testing the Xbox application. The typical look of the dashboard is used throughout the entire program. You've got a space for your friends where you can see their latest comments and pictures and you can also see which of your friends is also on Xbox LIVE and the other way around. This way it's easy to get together for a game. The user himself has the possibility to put up messages and look at pictures. Not all functions of the website have been transferred but the most important things are.

Has this changed my idea about Facebook? No, the site still can't please me with the many stupid community games, the irritating quizzes and the posts where people share everything they do with the world. It doesn't interest me at all, but it does work for those that like it. The only thing I was wondering about was where that achievement is for becoming a Facebook member?!

Twitter

Twitter looks like a minimalistic version of a blog. No mountains of pictures, games and videos but only short text messages. Those that start up the program will also notice that the functions are limited. Only watching messages from people you follow and placing sms-like messages yourself are possibilities. That's all the application offers. A bit more integration with games in the future can be a possibility but as it is now it looks to me like something completely unnecessary. Oh yea, just like with Facebook becoming a member is necessary.

Last.FM

The music channel was the addition I liked most after the announcement of the update, but it now seems completely absent for the European market. Only the US and British Gold members get full access to it. The Silver members are limited to three hours of free music.

There are talks of bringing Last.FM over here in a payable form but that's one thing I certainly won't be doing. There are plenty of free webcasts or standard radio channels. If the Last.FM application would allow to stream music while playing I might consider paying a small fee, but to only listen to music in the specific application? No thanks!

Zune

Zune can be compared to a digital TV-store where you can "rent" series or movies. Zune gives the possibility to stream or download movies to your Xbox360. A fast connection seems a necessity when you stream and those that download will need plenty of room on the harddisk. After downloading you have 24 hours to watch.

The prices you pay depend a lot on the product. Plenty of web-episodes are free but new movies or HD versions cost a bit more than the older or standard definitiion versions. Still the prices are quite decent and vary from 200 MS points to just over 400 which allows Microsoft to compete with standard digital TV providers.

Xbox 360 “Social Network Update"

The hype Microsoft tried to create surrounding the update may have been just a bit too much. Facebook is a nice extra for the addicted networker, but offers too few functions to attract gamers that aren't interested. Twitter seems completely unnecessary as long as there's no integration with games and Last.FM is just simply unavailable over here. Sad!

Most remarkable and interesting in the update - and also the part Microsoft shouted the least about - is Zune. The platform offers a lot of potential and makes the Xbox360 a multimedia device that doesn't only have games as most important part.

Those that don't really need Facebook or Twitter don't need to install these extras. Each part can be installed on your harddrive seperately. Nice!