I have been asked many times how I manage to keep track of all the social networks and services that I have. It is very difficult. Since I also review sites, I am constantly signing up for social networks or services. I think I am the only person that does not have a Myspace account, however, I suspect that many individuals are signed up for quite a few social networks themselves. Fear not! There are a few ways to keep them straight with – yes – another service, however, you will be just a little more organized. Below, I will give you five services that I have tried that are great starts to becoming more socially organized.

1. Profilactic (which sounds like a medicine to me) is a recent favorite of mine and supports Pownce, LinkedIn, Shelfari, and the ability to add more than one account for the same site. At its core, Profilactic does two things: it displays your personal lifestream, which consists of your social networking activity, and a group lifestream from your friends. What it does, it does well. There’s also the option to create clippings – bits and pieces of information from the web; but this option is not really connected to the rest of the features on the site.
2. SocialURL helps you organize your online identity and get back in touch with all of your friends and classmates. It’s a unified profile with support for photo galleries and videos, as well as a central portal with links pointing out to all your other social network profiles. It’s all spiced up with lots of additional features, like on-site email, reminders and bookmarks.
3. Naymz is not so much an organizer but helps in that the service actively monitor certain sites for mention of your name. Naymz also actively promotes your profile by trying to make it more visible on Google.
4. Second Brain takes a radically different approach to aggregation than other apps on this list. You organize your data – this includes data from your social network profiles, like Flickr photos or YouTube videos – into collections. A collection is basically a bunch of links, photos, or other bits and pieces of data thrown onto a dashboard; you can create your own collections or explore what others have collected.
5. MyLifeBrand goes a step further by really integrating various social network sites within a MyLifeBrand frame. Its a pretty great service.

All of these services will help in your quest to be a little more organized in your life online and let’s face it; They all do the same thing, however, each of them have something they do different as well. Something you may like, and something you may not like. Take a look at them all. They all strive to keep your online social life more organized and that is something many of us need these days.

CEO of Gizmoz, Eyal Gever, has done quite well with impressing the online community with this 3D avatar site.  In the current social networking craze, Gizmoz offers an interesting way to spice up your current Myspace or other SN site and it seems numerous online surfers are searching for more to make their page unique.  You can view Eyal Gever’s (Gizmo CEO) Myspace page here.  If you are one of these users, chances are you’ve delved into the glitter comments, funny pictures or YouTube videos but all of these can be accessed and used by others.   If something truly exclusive is what you search for, then Gizmoz is a good option for you.

Gizmoz offers a variety of options for your 2D headshot such as 3D stickers, videos, pre-recorded or personally recorded audio with many options to customize.   Contrary to many current beliefs, Gizmoz has competitors that offer the same type of service.  Fix8, noted by VentureBeat, is similar and has raised a few million by supporters.   This is slightly behind Gizmoz.  TechCrunch reported that Gizmoz has ‘risen $6.5M in Series B financing from a round led by DoCoMo Capital, a subsidiary of the largest cell phone operator in Japan.’  Gizmoz’s funding totals in upwards of 12.8 million dollars which is a significant chunk of change considering the premise of the site.

Mashable reported back in May 2007 that Gizmoz released a second, updated Beta offering a more sturdy application.  Now in 2008, Gizmoz is progressing steadily and is gaining momentum among critics.  Following the TechCrunch 2007 Conference, Gizmoz approval rating was an average of 4.3, rating best on “idea” and “execution”.  Only six people took the poll but I guess that’s better than zero.  Compete offers site analytics for Gizmoz.com and it seems the site was doing its best between June and July 2007.  Since July 2007, the site has been on a slow decline in visitors, yet still placing in the 40K range. 

Gizmoz has also partnered with AOL’s instant messaging service AIM called Gizmoz Expressions .  Other IM services are compatible as well.  As an AIM user myself, it is nice to see something other than little smiley faces.  The AIM WeeMee is a pretty cool service but does not compete with the current ability of using your own picture.   Except many people may be hesitant to use their own picture, especially if they use AIM at work as I do.   

Crunchbase points out that, “Gizmoz also has several celebrity avatars that can say recorded phrases.”  I think that once Gizmoz gets rolling out of Beta – there will be several creative individuals cranking out JibJab/SmashMash type videos using these excellent 3D celebrity avatars.   Gizmoz has a great idea and I think many people have found it to be a quality application.  I do hope they add more options to use the avatars for such as less flashy skins and more hair styles.  Also, I would like to see a bit more clarity in the facial movement.  Overall, I think Gizmoz has a chance to be very successful.

This YouTube video shows a Gizmoz head making demonstration.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=-6iPP6T2xak[/youtube]

 Photoshop Plug-in FaceShop

As with just about any type of social site, there are tons of gaming communities in existence. So what makes weplaythis any different from the rest? Well, according to the weplaythis team, “gaming sites are dark, geeky, and cramped with porn, popups and poker ads. We just don’t like that.” So they just don’t have it. Unlike the forum-based gaming communities that probably come to mind for most people, weplaythis this avoids the dark color scheme, typical ads, and forum-based approach, presenting itself as a truly friendly social network for gamers.

The primary feature of weplaythis is the Game Shelf, where users store a virtual collection of their game library. Each user is able to fill up their shelf with all the games they’ve played, define whether they loved it or hated it, and give them a rating of one to five stars. You can also mark which games you are currently playing. Publicly, users can display their six favorites or six least favorites, 3 of each, six recent additions, or six random games on their shelf. The over 37000 games are searchable by platform, keyword, or title, and everything from arcade games to PS3 titles are in the database, which the team constantly checks against the MobyGames database in order to keep it as up to date as possible.
Another feature that I really like is the Playground, where users can upload photos of where they do their gaming and tag the image with sticky notes to point out their favorite details. It’s a great way to get an inside look on not only where and how the people you meet game, but also on how they live. The rest of the weplaythis features are fairly standard of most social networks—friends, groups, and your own personal blog. weplaythis allows you to invite or search for friends and, of course, encourages making new friends through the site. In your profile you can define and group your interests, so when joining interest-specific groups you can find people who love Second Life, Nintendo Wii, or whatever else just as much as you do. Your blog is perfect for leaving your own game reviews, keeping track of progress, and ranting about anything game-related in general. You can grab widgets to place on your own personal site or blog, allowing you to take your weplaythis space with you and weplaythis always greets you with the latest that’s been going on with you, your friends, and the site’s progress when you log in.

In addition to what they’ve already got developed and available to beta testers, weplaythis is still working on a PC/Mac compatible application that showcases what you’re currently playing and shows what others are playing. weplaythis also encourages people to share their own creations via blog or group while they work on getting the object and theme contribution features working. If your work is good enough weplaythis will feature it on the front page. Other areas to explore that are still under development include the section for games and eighty-two platforms. weplaythis is currently in private beta, but you can request an invite here or learn more about it here.

With the sad demise of Jonkenpon and 8apps along with it, some people—myself included—may be looking for a new collaborative social network. While there are still plenty out there to choose from—such as 37signal’s BaseCamp–those looking to jump in on one that has yet to become full of members just looking to get in on the next new web app may want to consider giving YouFig a go.

YouFig describes itself as Demo Collaboration Community, aiming to connect those with common interests. Pretty simple, right? That’s the point. YouFig achieves its goal in the simplest way possible: by helping people find others to discuss their interests with and to provide them with a Workspace in which to do it. YouFig has twenty-four categories and multiple sub-categories in each, for a grand total of more than 200 individual interests. Each member is allowed up to ten tags and ten categories to define their interests and specialties. YouFig will look for Workspaces that might interest you and allow you to search for Workspaces and people by category or, of course, start a new Workspace and invite new collaborators to YouFig. You can also add collaborators to your network and keep tabs on what they’re up to. By being active in the community, which includes starting, joining, voting, or collaborating on a workspace, inviting others to join, and referring collaborators, members can earn points which can be exchanged for prizes later on.

Naturally, Workspaces are a vital part of YouFig. They are where people connect, discuss, and share information on their common interest. Being in private beta, the demo version of YouFig doesn’t actually have many collaborators to contribute, making the community seem somewhat weak at times. However, YouFig was created to provide a collaborative application to organizations that need one, such as schools, corporations, and research groups. Customized communities can be ordered for free.

So what do I think of YouFig? Well it doesn’t impress me. It hasn’t drawn me into a rich community of people who share any of my obscure interests. Then again, neither have any other collaborative networks or social networks in general. Then again, when you consider the fact that there are only about 500 members taking part in the private beta demo and that several of them are inactive, you can only expect so much. I think YouFig has great potential, but it requires either a large userbase or use by a private organization to really live up to it. Then again, YouFig was not really meant to be like the larger social networks. In fact, it boasts the fact that there is “no social network required.”

If you would like to learn more, you can read Mashable’s review or visit the YouFig website. Keep in mind that this web app is still in private beta, so you’ll have to request an invite to join! Or, if you’re part of an organization that is looking for a collaborative application, go here to place an order for free.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P2XBL7hTsQ[/youtube]

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

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVIYhdaavsw[/youtube]