Ning

Ning is an online facility for creating social network and/or community homepage. Ning was launched in 2005 as a social networking website built to rival MySpace. The idea was to go beyond the personal online presence and let people with shared interests build customized, online portals where they could exchange ideas based around shared interests. Ning's main selling point is that it allows you to build a highly customizable community portal or fan site with little or no knowledge of web design. It's great for beginners looking to create a homepage where they can invite friends to discuss hobbies or shared interests. Ning has a very modern look and feel, with full use of modern Web 2.0 features allowing you to fully customize your own community site. You can change the color of many elements, such as the text, headers, background or tables to suit your own look and feel. Placing applets and tables in your community site is as easy as clicking and dragging icons on your computer desktop. These powerful features don't come at a cost where performance is concerned either, the site responds snappily and quickly to your requests. The registration process requires you to only enter your name and e-mail address. You are not asked for your birth date and do not need to verify your e-mail adress. This makes it easy and quick for you to get started. Ning is a free service supported by advertising. If you are looking for a social networking site where you will find many long, lost friends, then Ning isn't the place for you. However, Ning is a useful application if you want to set up an interactive and customized fan site or community page, but don't want to invest the time and resources involved in building a true website.