Andreessen stakes name on Ning
p2pnet.net news:- Does the world need yet another ’social networking’ service? Marc Andreessen, the man behind Netscape, believes it does and is, “approaching the second coming of the Internet with Ning, a free online service that allows people to create their own social networks,” says the San Francisco Chronicle.
He’s, “staked his reputation and his own money on this ambitious gambit in the already crowded and competitive social networking space dominated by deep-pocketed media giants or fellow upstarts with more heft and momentum,” says the story.
“He says Ning’s approach, which allows people to customize the look and feel of their own Web sites with photos, music, discussions, forums, blogs and other features, will rise above the rest as online socializing continues its astounding growth.”
Ning has 30,000 sites and registered users in more than 176 countries, says the story, with “quite a range of social networks, from ‘American Idol’ fans to a 43-year-old Newark, N.J., postal worker and aspiring hip-hop artist who has uploaded his collection of more than 1,000 old-school videos to an 18-year-old Xavier University student who created a student video contest.”
“Sites like MySpace offer Web users individual profile pages they can use to connect to friends, but typically keep control of the underlying network, including advertising sales,” says PC Pro, going on:.
“By contrast, users within each Ning network can select the latest Web features for watching videos online, creating a photo slideshow, listening to music or publishing a blog. Members have far greater flexibility over the look of their personal profile pages, buddy lists and site colour schemes..
But the story has Net analyst, Rob Enderle, saying, “The difficulty is that people don’t like to do a lot of work. They like to go to places where people with like interests already are. They don’t necessarily like to build their own network, they want to be part of one.
“It’s not clear whether Ning has factored in human behavior or if it can build the audience it needs to make this work.”
Ning sites can be public or private, “with the company retaining rights to run targeted advertising on member sites,” says PC Pro.
“But users can pay sliding monthly fees for the right to run their own advertising, substitute their own Web address, or add storage or bandwidth for high-traffic Web sites.”
Also See:
San Francisco Chronicle – Andreessen betting name on new Ning, February 27, 2007
PC Pro- Users to generate social networks, February 28, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the end (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
