NEW YORK When the phrase "social networking" comes up, most people will reflexively think of Facebook and MySpace. They're the biggest, and they certainly get the most hype.But, if anything, those are social networks in name only, according to Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine.

In a keynote address here at the MediaBistro Circus media conference, Anderson argued that social networking is really about identifying with a community that is built around a specific topic, a "raison d'etre.""'Community' is one of these words that we toss around all the time," Anderson said. "The problem with the social networking destinations like Facebook and MySpace is that they're not about anything they're about Facebook and MySpace."

Instead, smaller sites with a narrow focus are the more fertile grounds for successful social networking, Anderson argued.

He was referring to the Internet's "long tail," a term he coined in 2004 referring to the innumerable niche sites across the Web whose visitors tend to have a strong interest in a particular field of content.