Ning: Social Networking
If Vox hopes to bring blogging to the masses, Ning, which launched publicly for the first time this week, is hoping to do the same for social networking. Backed by Marc Andreessen, one of the cofounders of Netscape, the site allows users to build their own small social networking sites, complete with customizable, easy-to-design pages that include all of the tools available on sites like YouTube, Flickr, and MySpace. "What's different about Ning from other services is that we give you your own video site like YouTube, or social-networking site like MySpace," said CEO Gina Bianchini during a presentation of the site. "But unlike being a page in somebody else's service, it's yours. You get to choose what it's about." Ning, which has been up for more than a year, is already home to everything from a 24-7 video channel for classic hip-hop to a social network for Motocross enthusiasts. According to Bianchini, there are 22,500 social websites on the site today. "We're making a big bet," added Andreessen, "that there will be a lot more social networks over the next couple of years."
