Ning the social network for anything and anybody

Just in case you have been on a recent trip to mars, or for some reason are out of the loop on what is happening on the internet, social networking is not just a big thing, but a huge one. In fact social networking is credited as being one of the major forces behind another buzzword web 2.0. While there are many social networks out there ranging from the general like myspace to the more specific such as Famundo I found a fun little place that allows you to start your own social network. That’s right, now you can get the feeling of what its like to be Tom by beginning your own social network that can be about anything you want. Are you way into video games? Why not create your own social network. Want to stay in touch with fellow bloggers? Create a social network space for bloggers and their fans only.

Started in October 2004 by Co Founders Gina Bianchini and Marc Andreessen Ning now hosts more social networks than any other social network. Their idea was to see what would happen if anyone could make a social network about anything. Well it looks like the idea was fairly popular, boasting more than 7,000 unique social networks and growing each day Ning could be on the verge of becoming a household name just like Google and myspace.

As is to be expected there are critics of this service stating that one of the main reasons behind Ning’s success is that there are several social networks geared towards porn. However as revealed in this post over at the tech crunch, Ning is not about pro porn but pro freedom. It is actually quite refreshing to see a company stand on its two feet and support the idea of freedom for everyone not just the main stream. However this could also be what ultimately stops Ning from becoming as widely used as more ‘family friendly’ social networking sites. Either way I hope that the later is not true for Ning has so much to offer to everyone who is interested in social networking.

First out of all the companies and sites I have visited it seems that Ning is one of the most committed to customer satisfaction. They are so committed to the happiness of their users that they have actually developed a team of programmers that can help you develop your social network. This team is called Team Advocacy and you can learn more about them at this blog that is hosted by Ning itself. It is reasons like this that I believe that Ning can be the next big thing. While many similar social networks give the user a pre set choice of styles and designs, Ning actually allows its users to pretty much design their own look and feel. Also you don’t have to be a coding genius to make Ning work, they are there to help you out as much as they can. They do care about you and go out of their way to prove it, don’t believe me? Check out this blog about how easy it is to use Ning.

I also figure that letting you have a look at my own attempt to create a social network might be kind of fun as well.

You can check out Ning and build your own Social Network by going to their site at www.ning.com

and a video with one of the founders