Social networking



:: Social Networking ::

  • MySpace
    “… an online community that lets you meet your friends’ friends. Create a private community on MySpace and you can share photos, journals and interests with your growing network of mutual friends!” The most popular, and the most controversial, of the ’social networking’ sites, with (as of early 2006) 55 million registered users and 250,000 new people signing up each day. Purchased July 2005 by media baron Rupert Murdoch with a view to it becoming News Corps’ turf on the internet.
  • Bebo
    Another site aimed predominantly at teenagers, Built around schools and colleges, it’s a sort of ‘FriendsNotYetParted’ version of ‘FriendsReunited’.
  • Frappr
    “… an online tool that lets you map out the city where you live, work, vacation, or anything else! You can then share your unique URL with friends and find out where the rest of them live and work in relation to everyone else.”
  • WAYN (‘Where Are You Now?’)
    “WAYN helps you keep track of all your contacts around the world and make new friends based on where you are now, where you have been, and where you are going.” Conceptualised around the theme of past, present, and future travel, this is generically similar to Frappr: maps, people search by location (with a hint of ‘FriendsReunited’ to it), SMS, chat, email contact list upload, web mail, journey planning (and travel reporting, with photo album upload).
  • GROU.PS
    “… a sharing platform for social groups.” Generically similar to Frappr (Google map, blog, wiki, photos, links)
  • 43 Things
    “People have known for years that making a list of goals is the best way to achieve them. But most of us never get around to making a list. 43 Things is great for that! Make a list on 43 Things and see what changes happen in your life. Best of all it’s a way of connecting with other enthusiasts interested in everything from watching a space shuttle launch to grow my own vegetables.”
  • 43 People
  • Friendster
  • TagWorld
    “TagWorld is helping build the Social Web by providing a unified set of easy-to-use, web-based services that will let users create and engage in a more meaningful, social experience. The Social Web empowers people’s ability to engage in self-expression and communicate and share information with whomever they choose. As the Internet’s influence evolves, a new social phase is emerging that calls for enabling people to place and have access to a broad range of personal information that they wish to place on the web. To support users, TagWorld sees five fundamental components for building out this new social web infrastructure: people, photos, blogs, tags and storage.”
  • Orkut
    “an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends … an online meeting place where people can socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests.” Part of the Google network; join by invitation only
  • Squidoo
    A kind of cross between a blog and an informal enyclopaedia, Squidoo (as captured in its logo straplines “Everyone’s an expert on something” and “Spreading ideas, one lens at a time”) allows one to write on some topic of personal expertise or interest, with links to Amazon, to other web sites, to RSS feeds, etc. Entries are categorised (and hence located) by tags; and are reviewed and rated by other users. From the ‘about’ page: “We have built an online platform that makes it easy for anyone to build lenses on topics they are passionate about. These lenses help you find a unique, human perspective on things that interest you… fast. Not only can Lensmasters spread their ideas, get recognized for their expertise, and send more traffic to their Web sites and blogs?��they could also earn royalties”, and from the FAQs: “A lens is one person’s (lensmaster’s) view on a topic he cares about. More specifically, a lens is a single web page filled with information and links that point to other web pages, to continually updated RSS feeds, or to relevant advertising.”
  • Consumating
    “… the first dating site to use the ideas of tagging to help people find one another”
  • Verbdate
    another Web 2.0 dating site
  • Upcoming.org
    “… a social event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Manage your events, share events with friends and family, and syndicate your calendar to your own site.”
  • AllConsuming
    “… a website where you can track and talk about the books, music, movies, food and other items that interest you. You can mark a product one of three ways: I am consuming this, I have consumed this, and I intend to consume this.”