Popular open source software company Red Hat launched an open source Social Networking site named Mugshot. From their website: “Mugshot is an open project to create a live social experience around entertainment. Mugshot makes it easy to share web pages and show off your music tastes…Mugshot is designed and developed in the context of an open source community project.” There are still in a private beta, but from what I can tell it seems that they have some quality stuff in the works. I think the open source platform could produce some very powerful and unique...

The social networking space has a few niche players for car and motorcycle enthusiasts some of them being carspace.com, showoffcars.com, and carster.com. But I recently got a chance to ask the founder of RideRoom.com, Tim Gostovic, some questions about his car social networking site. Q. Why did you decide to start Rideroom.com? A. “I came up with idea after browsing one of the larger sites in the automotive SN niche for a while and being unsatisfied with the look/feel of the site and the options it offered. I thought I could create something that was easier to navigate, looked better and...

Last week I posted an interview I did with Peter Pezaris, CEO of SN site Multiply.com. Before and after our discussion I poked around Multiply.com for awhile to check out its features. I personally believe that Mutliply is one of the better general social networks right now. Its interface is clean and easy to use and the site is full of content sharing features. I would agree with Peter, when he says that out of all the general social networks (Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, etc) that Multiply has the best media sharing applications. Peter and his crew have done a great job in building a social networking...

While I despise del.icio.us like domains, Fo.rtuito.us is a unique spin on Social Networking worth writing about. At fo.rtuito.us, you sign up and are introduced to a random person. You then have 4 days to communicate by the in site email system, to see if you are friends. At the end of the 4 days you are introduced to another person. There are no elaborate profiles or searching for various people. This is an extremely simple website, which is why I think it could be extremely addicting to a lot of people. Fo.rtuito.us keeps you coming back for more every...

Many people are trying to figure out the special ingredient that will take down Myspace. One of these ways that I wrote about a week ago (Gather.com - Paying Members) explored the potential of sharing ad revenue with members. Another site, Panjea.com, has popped up claiming that they will share up to 50% of the revenues generated from your profile. In addition they have a member referral program that will pay you 25% of the ad revenue generated from people that you sign up. From their site: “Panjea.com is the first social media network to share the wealth with...

I came across an article at itnews.com about mobile social networking and the road it still has yet to travel. I talked about this exact issue in one of my previous posts, The Future of Social Networking. From the article: “The early mobile social networking applications that exist today limit functionality to basic text alerts when online profiles have been updated. Interfacing with the online client is nearly, if not completely, impossible.” The expansion of GPS enabled phones and faster data speeds will truly reveal the amazing possibilities of mobile social networking. [tags]Social...

Take stock picking and investment advice, throw in a social networking base and you have an extremely useful community. This is one of the best social networking niches I have seen yet, not only for its topic but for the profitability potential. Currently there are two players that I know of, SocialPicks.com and FeelingBullish.com. Both are in private alpha but coming along nicely. Between the two, I think SocialPicks is the clear winner for right now. Their design is very clean and appealing, and the navigation was relatively simple to use. You are able...

Apparently Martha’s jail time got her thinking how much she likes to interact with people. Today Martha Stewart Announced that she will be developing a social network aimed at women 25-45 which will be part of marthastewart.com. From the news.com article: “The network would appeal to women aged 25 to 45, and allow members to share photographs, scrapbooks, recipes and similar projects with one another and home design experts…” I agree with the post on Micro Persuasion that this is a failure in process. They plan on launching the network late next year...

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Multiply.com CEO, Peter Pezaris, about Multiply and his opinions about the hot social networking scene. Peter founded SN site Multply.com back in November 2003, and launched their first version of the site in March 2004. At the time of our conversation Multiply’s user base had just passed 2.4 million members with 2.5 million close in their site. While I wasn’t able to obtain any specifics regarding their growth rate, Peter did say that it took them a quarter of the time to go from 1 million to 2 million users then...

Bebo is getting a lot of press after their announcement of receivng $15 million in venture capital. Jim Scheinman has been quoted in multiple publications that with the new cash infusement they are going to try and build their US market share. From Media Life Magazine: “Within the next quarter or two we will start making a push in the U.S…It certainly can grow in the U.S., and I think that the infusion of capital they got this week will help that“ Personally I disagree with this strategy for right now. Bebo is starting to do so well in the foreign markets,...