Business2.0 chose Social Networking Applications as its technology of the year because it applied the power of the network to one of the most fundamental problems in all of business: finding the person who has the critical information you need, right when you need it.
Good cudos for LinkedIn, Visible Path, Spoke, Friendster, Ryze and Tribe.net. The article also says privacy is the achillies heel of social networking, but the lure of increased social capital is too tempting to hold back its development.
(btw, same issue has a really cool picture of Ben and Mena)