There are a ton of social networks and microblogs out there. As is the case with most of them, they’re not really worth your time unless you find some way that they can directly benefit YOU.
Personally, I was not a huge fan of BrightKite until just recently, when they released their dedicated iPhone Application. The location-based social network always seemed a bit lame to me because you either had to have your laptop with you (and booted up) everywhere you went, or you had to control the entire system through text messaging. Now, for iPhone users anyway, this App could take BrightKite over the top.
Previously, Abhijeet has highlighted three awesome sites where you can create your own social network easily. However, if you are one of those who wants more control of the site, including the branding, the domain name, the features, the design, the community rule, or even the database, the best way is to install and run a social networking software on your server.
While there are plenty of scripts (both free and paid) that you can use to run your own social network, there are only a few that are stable, good and easy to use.
Kwippy is another micro-blogging site that resembles both Twitter, Pownce, and FriendFeed. Kwippy is a convenient and easy way to stay connected with old friends and an even better way to make new friends - the social networking “goal”.
If you see a “Kwip” you like, it’s very easy to find out more about the author and to follow them. Kwippy allows you to interact and converse with short messages such as interesting things you find online or just letting people know what you’re up to or how you’re feeling. Also, the Kwippy commenting system promotes members to engage in conversations, making it a great tool for getting quick feedback or opinions from others.
Up until recently, I was using numerous Greasemonkey scripts to add separate tabs in FriendFeed so that I could access sites like Ping.fm, Kwippy & Google Reader directly from my account. The disadvantage to using separate tags though was that there were only certain ones available for me to use. For example, there are tabs for Plurk, Google Calendar, Remember the Milk, and Identi.ca, just to name a few.
Now, with the help of Better FriendFeed, there’s no longer a limit to the kind of tabs you can add to FriendFeed. In addition to being able to add any tab that you want, Better FriendFeed also helps to make FriendFeed “cleaner”.
Socialbrowse is a new social networking website similar to Stumbleupon. Since Socialbrowse is still in beta you’ll have to enter your email address when you arrive at the Socialbrowse website so that you can be invited. When you enter your email and hit the ‘get it!’ button you should probably receive your invitation instantly.
At the moment there aren’t many people on Socialbrowse because it is quite new so I recommend that you sign up and give it a go because it has quite a nice community.
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