10 Brilliant Social Networks You Don’t Know About
By DavidReece • Jun 29th, 2008 • Category: Internet, OpinionIt’s not all about the facebooks, myspaces and twitters out there. By focusing only on the mainstream social networks crammed down our throats by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Google and other multi-million dollar giants, are we missing out on the last corners of the web that actually speak our language?
I at least assume that because these hidden gems are new, relatively small, or just haven’t been pushed in your face by the media, that you probably don’t know about most of them, but despite their relative obscurity, the sites on this list are pretty damn useful, some offering far better features and nicer communities than their more established counterparts.
So without further ado, here are 10 genuinely great social networks that deserve a place in your bookmarks, and StartupEarth predicts could eventually outshine their mainstream competitors…
1. aNobii - (www.anobii.com) -Taking the traditional book club out of the living-room and onto the web (and back into your living room via TFT, but anyway..) aNobii is an obscure but invaluable social network for book lovers to share book reviews and recommendations.
Membership: Free - Based: Hong Kong - Launched: 2005
2. Pijoo - (www.pijoo.com) -A social network for bloggers and blog readers to come together, find great new blogs to read, and share your favourite articles with friends. It’s also a great way to promote your blog for free. I’ve been following the progress of this one since its inception less than a year ago, and it has a geniunely nice commununity feel to it.
Membership: Free - Based: United Kingdom - Launched: 2007
3. Badoo - (www.badoo.com) - Reportedly the number 3 most popular social network in France, London based Badoo is a multi-lingual, social network that offers users the ability to connect with people at a local and global level, allowing them to share photos and videos, create reportages of their lives, and promote themselves and their work.
Membership: Free - Based: United Kingdom - Launched: 2003
4. College Tonight - (www.collegetonight.com) - Obvious pretender to Facebooks throne, College Tonight is a privacy-protected, registered-users-only social network that encourages actual social interactivity. It establishes distinct networks for each U.S. college, where students can post information about parties, concerts, and social events, download contact lists to their mobile phones, and make plans to meet up.
Membership: Free - Based: United States - Launched: 2006
5. Hi5 - (www.hi5.com) - Popular in parts of Latin America, Europe and Asia, Hi5 lets users create an online profile in order to show information such as interests, age and hometown and upload user pictures where users can post comments.
Membership: Free - Based: United States - Launched: 1996
6. Jaiku - (www.jaiku.com) -Jaiku is a social networking, micro-blogging and lifestreaming service comparable to Twitter. Jaiku was founded in February 2006 by Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen from Finland and launched in July of that year. It was purchased by Google on October 9, 2007.
Membership: Free - Based: Finland - Launched: 2007
7. Orkut - (www.orkut.com) - Orkut is a social networking service which is run by Google and named after its creator, an employee of Google - Orkut Büyükkökten. The service states that it was designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships.
Membership: Free - Based: United States - Launched: 2004
8. Ryze - (www.ryze.com) - A free social network designed to link business professionals, particularly new entrepreneurs. The site claims to have over 250,000 members in 200 countries, with over 1,000 external organizations hosting sub-networks on the site.
Membership: Free - Based: United States - Launched: 2001
9. Youmeo - (www.youmeo.com) - Youmeo was originally founded in April 2005 under the name pplparty by then 15 year-old young entreperneur Calum Brannan. Currently the website’s offices are based in Coventry, United Kingdom.
Membership: Free - Based: United Kingdom - Launched: 2005
10. Zude - (www.zude.com) - A social network that offers free and unlimited web pages to all subscribers. Among Zude’s unique features is an innovative use of drag-and-drop technology which allows users to drag text, images, URLs, RSS, widgets and other content from another browser onto their Zude pages.
Membership: Free - Based: United States - Launched: 2006
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Where’s http://www.dontstayin.com huh?
@HarryM, it’s right there in your comment ;)
There are now thousands of social networks that cater to a whole variety of subjects. These smaller, focused sites allow users to connect with like-minded people and give advertisers targeted demographics. Niche social networks are also good for marketers who have a product or service they want to promote that relates to a particular interest. A good place to find such sites is this search engine for social networking sites.
Darn, very cool.
You may not have heard of Scholar360 - a secure social network AND LMS (Learner Management System) for schools and businesses. Your readers might be interested in a social network that is integrated in eLearning…
[...] can read the full post here. So cheers David for a great [...]
If you are interested in niche social networks, Passions Network is comprised of over 110 individual niche online dating social networking communities. Each sites is a fully functional standalone site, but they are also tied into the entire network…which allows members to pick and choose from the list of 110 sites, to create their own personal menu of communites that reflect their interests (or passions) in life. The entire list can be seen at http://www.passionsnetwork.com/c_resources.html
hey this list is missing Xoost.com - Your Social Search
http://xoost.com/about.php
No Doubt NoSo is the most brilliant so far
http://nosoproject.com/
[...] 10 brilliant social networks that you don’t know about Added on 07/02/2008 at 01:39PM [...]
[...] Startup Earth - 10 Brilliant Social Networks You Don’t Know About [...]
Check out http:www.athotspot.com, a new Beijing-based social network for expats!
Excellent list.
I’d like to add a newcomer
http://bitchybetty.Org
we’re bitching for change!