network

Shopping for fruitcake-free holidays

Even if the people in your life are spoiled, you don't need to turn to coal as a holiday gift. Instead, you can stuff stockings with gift cards that send cash in their honor to a worthy cause.

Changing the Present lets you make charitable contributions in the name of a loved one. Unlike other do-good gifting services (see below), you and your giftees can set up personal profiles that specify favorite causes. Plus, Changing the Present's Stupid Gifts Hall of Shame could be a destination in its own right (although I think fake vomit makes a fine … Read more

Takkle.com, social networking for jocks

The once-seemingly-vast gulf between the sociable jock and the computer geek (think Revenge of the Nerds) seems to be shrinking faster by the day. Last night at the New York Web 2.0 Social Networking Tech Meetup (wow, that's a mouthful), I met a few of the guys responsible for Takkle.com. In short, it's a social networking and media site geared toward those involved in high school sports: players, coaches, and fans. Takkle's been getting a fair amount of positive buzz since its Monday launch, thanks in particular to a partnership with Sports Illustrated's "… Read more

MingleNow takes the party home...sort of

MingleNow is a new social networking site with basic features that closely resemble MySpace's, with functions reminiscent of Flickr and Yelp. The basic premise of MingleNow is that it gives members the tools to talk to one another online, then easily move that conversation to a local hot spot. It has a database of locations, and if an establishment isn't listed, a member can add it, at which time the location becomes the hub of its own group. From there, any MingleNow member can add comments or pictures specific to it.

If members take pictures while they're … Read more

Gimme20: MySpace on a diet

Gimme20 is a new site that pulls fitness routines and tips together with social networking features. Profiles combined with geolocations help you find and connect with people to work out with. Ideally, these features could help you share tips on the best spots to run, hike, or find an open treadmill on a Monday night. Gimme20's usefulness is only limited by its currently small user community.

Like other social networking sites, the bread and butter of Gimme20 is to make interactions with other people as easy as possible. When a member posts a workout, others can comment on how … Read more

Another social network for music fans? UPlayMe, you slay me.

Someone should tell the creators of all these media- and playlist-swapping social networking services that, you know, just because you like the same music as someone doesn't mean you're necessarily going to get along. Because, let's face it. There are way too many of these sites and Web apps that try to connect people based on what music they like. There's Last.fm, and Pandora, and Imeem, and...okay, I could go on and on.

Well, here's a new one that I heard about on Tuesday night at the NY Tech Meetup. It's called … Read more

Urbis: 'Creative Republic' shows potential, faces threat of 'Myspaceyness'

I have a background in creative writing, so I was very excited to hear that one of the presentations at last night's NY Tech Meetup would be a demonstration of a new kind of Web community for writers (and eventually artists, musicians, and filmmakers). Indeed, the first presentation was of Urbis, which is a new review community founded by local New Yorker Steve Spurgat. Meetup founder Scott Heiferman described Spurgat, with his background as a playwright, as "the most unlikely Internet entrepreneur."

Here's the central concept of Urbis, which according to Spurgat has 12,000 members … Read more

Your next social network: all of them?

Spokeo, which bills itself as the "Trillian of social networks," does a very useful thing: It takes data feeds from multiple social networks that you participate in (such as MySpace, Xanga, and so forth), and gives you one overview page where you can see what's up with all your buddies' pages.

All you have to do is enter in the URL of your personal feed, and Spokeo will subscribe to your buddies' RSS feeds. Then you use Spokeo as the hub to see what's going on in your extended network. It's kind of like the … Read more

Facebook's Firefox extension is either awesome or annoying. We can't really tell yet.

Although the once-exclusive social networking site Facebook has since opened up to the general public, its user base still largely consists of high school and college students who are prone to procrastination. In fact, Facebook's facilitation of voyeuristic procrastination is one reason that it probably caught on so virally in the first place. And now, Facebook users can integrate procrastination right into their Firefox 2.0 browsers, with the just-announced Facebook Toolbar. It really gives the service an always-there presence on your Web surfing experience. Paranoiacs might find it a little Big Brother-ish, kind of like they did when … Read more

Zoodango: all too literal social networking

Just what you were looking for: another social networking site! If you've tired of the purely social scene that is Facebook or MySpace, LinkedIn is just too buttoned down for you, and you want your social networking to happen in the real world, then welcome to Zoodango. (Ok, first things first: Zoodango?)

The deal with Zoodango is it will attempt to combine the over-sharing personal elements of MySpace or Facebook ("lifestyle information"), the impressive-credential listing and resume jargon ("professional information") of LinkedIn, and the time-honored coffee-shop get-together. Yes, Zoodango has a fairly novel approach to … Read more