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http://iphone.mybuywatcher.com

I have used it for a couple of projects, and found it to be very useful. Facebook is becoming too noisy, just as Myspace did, so I like having control over the appearance of my site. I am not using Ning to create giant networks, just closely focused groups that work together.

FWIW, I think they’d be smart to focus on fee based services for organizations and businesses. There’s plenty of room to apply social networking there, and more value.

I run a popular aviation-related discussion forum that brings in about $2,000 per year in advertising revenue. It took a lot of hard work to build and advertise the site. Why should I expend lots of time and energy on a Ning network so that they can collect the revenue? It’s a lot of hard work! They ought to offer a revenue-sharing scheme with the network creators. You win, they win.

http://www.zipityzap.com Internet Television. Cafeteria Style. Seeking investors for a mid-2008 launch.

But if you imagine a world in which users have control and portability of their own data (including their profile and friends list), then a serivice like Ning would be great because you and your community could easily “pick up and move” into a more customized and friendly environment, continue to do what you normally do in terms of basic profile and friends-list maintenance, and Ning would continue to provide an “up-to-date” experience that’s connected to the rest of your life. More importantly, Ning could focus on what they do best–providing powerful-yet-easy-to-use customization options–instead of having to re-build yet-another-social-graph to provide their unique value.

This is some of the thinking behind the Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web (http://opensocialweb.org)–until users get control back from walled gardens, a vision like this is going to be hard to make practical… js

I agree with many of the posts…I just feel that we are going a bit crazy on the Social Networking Front. I can only handle 2-3 max and of those, FB is really the only one I use on a regular basis (Linked-In and Doostang occasionally). I think that while Ning has a slightly different approach, it can’t compete long-term with the broad range of services offered under the FB umbrella (now, and as it expands). Even the point that FB is comprised of young users is paper thin, as the older generation begins to use social networking and is turning to the recognized leader–not re-inventing the wheel for those with a few gray hairs.

Marc may be able to keep it afloat, but I think this one’s headed the way of the Dodo.

It has always been crystal clear to me that the Ning idea is dead-on-arrival. For many of the reasons you state above, any of Ning’s “social networks” works better as a Facebook Group, period.

The only thing Ning has going for it for right now is Marc Andreesen, who’s track record and celebrity status is enough to attract huge investment and great employees – even for a loser of an idea.

That said, I don’t count out Ning precisely because they have Marc. Great entrepreneurs often go through several bad ideas before hitting on the winner. Let’s see if Marc can make the tough decisions and course corrections necessary here – for the sake of his business, investors, and employees.

I built one on Ning for my high school alumni association in August and there are now almost 1000 users. The site will continue to grow organically and we expect 10,000 users by june. While these are still not huge numbers, this is just for one high school.

What is interesting is that for MOST of the people that have joined… this is the first time they have ever joined a social network. As a result of being exposed to this network and the easy of the Ning platform, about 30 people have contacted me to learn more about the platform and have started their own networks on Ning. Most people are attracted to it because they aren’t developers or even that tech savy and like the ease of use. While Ning has a free offering, I have no problem paying $20-25 a month to remove google ads and to mask the domain with our own URL.

I also think that Ning is going to explode in china.

Yes I am a huge advocate of Ning and the platform they have built. Not because of any vested interest in the company or personal relationships… but because the product is great and keeps getting better. Looking forward to seeing what they do with OpenSocial.

Keith

I would argue the opposite. Unfortunately, most “internet celebrities” have far less reach than “actual celebrities.” A person with a big name will more easily get their stuff tacked up on TechCrunch, but TechCrunch has a tiny userbase (if you’re talking about “normal” people).

Shocked to hear that? Ask your Facebook friends if they’ve heard of TechCrunch, or your favorite internet mogul. Of the 500 or so friends I have on Facebook, probably 6 of them would actually know about these things.

Of those 6, I’ve only met 2 of them in person, which says something about how I found those 6 in the first place.

Getting funded, on the other hand, is a different story. But with web startups are cheap as they are to start, it’s not that big of a deal.

In the Internet space,when you have a founder with terrific name recognition, more than half the job is done. Its exactly like the dotcom days. You start something, spend a bunch of money marketing and hyping it (that’s why they need all this money!), get a critical mass of users and finally sell out irrespective of whether you have a viable business model or not (Didn’t Youtube do it?). Its the same game being played all over again by a privileged set of people. Good for them!