Social Network Startups: hurox, travel popnets, mytrybe, ifimpresident, araspace

This week, I'll be sharing social networking startups that got my attention. You can check them out and leave your comments on what you think about them.

There you go...

Hurox (pronounced “who rocks”) is much more than your average social network. Using some of the most advanced tools available, anyone can create virtually any “website”, no pasting code or programming necessary. Also, every Hurox member has the ability to earn monetary rewards for their efforts. Go see for yourself here

Travel Popnets is a new way for globe-hoppers and web-surfers to save, share and discover the best of the web wide world. You can organize all of your travel know-how and explore favorites shared by your friends. Check them out here

MyTrybe is a networking application that connects you with people that share your personal taste and interests. Get just-right recommendations and discover the people in your personal taste network - your Trybe! Visit the site here

ifimpresident.com is a social utility designed to network people through ideas rather than personal relationships. The main goal is to foster a comfortable atmosphere, where political dialogue can be achieved respectably. Users are linked to their peers based on their political views so that when you discuss politics through out site, it will be read by a targetted audience based on what views you yourself have. View the network here

Araspace is the first Arabic social networking site that has a bilingual interface with 100% Arabic and English support. AraSpace.com is dedicated to people throughout the world, especially Arabic speakers, who wish to meet and make friends. Like other social networks, you can find people with similar interests, share your views, announcements, photos, music, videos, and more! Go to the site here

Please feel free to leave your comments on what your think about these social network startups. Enjoy!

January 2008: Profiled Social Network Startups + New Approach for SocialCrunch

I'm pleased to announce to you that this blog, SocialCrunch will be taking a new dimension with the profiling of new social networks as from this month of February. Recently, I decided to focus more on new startup social sites that are connecting people together in today's webspace. That new approach started in January 2008 and I was able to profile 10 social networking startups.

If you missed them, here are they:

1. The CollegeLife.com - A New Facebook?

2. JASEzone MashUp Professionals in Google Maps Mashup

3. FoodHood.com - Where Foodies Meet and Eat

4. Livesteez - The New Video Sharing Place for Hip-Hop and African-American Entertainment News

5. Fiction Folks Mash And Make Money At StoryMash.com

6. Next2Friends Launches Beta And Connects Friends Next To Friends

7. Professional Networking at Neurona.it

8. SocialSplash Uses Splash Points to Buy Users?

9. Tadinky Launches and Invites Members Suggestions

10. MC Hammer To Launch Video Sharing Site Called DanceJam.com

Beginning from February, I'm hoping to try a newer approach. At the end of each week starting from the 4th of February, I would briefly review new social network startups for the week and profile the one I consider as "The Social Network of the Week".

Then, I would expect readers of this blog to select what they would consider as "The Social Network of the Week". You can do so on the comments section. Soon, we would set up a weekly poll, where you can vote for 'The Social Network of The Week'.

I value your readership and comments.

TheCollegeLife.com - A New Facebook?

TheCollegeLife, is probably the next generation in social networking for college students. The new social online community for students by students offers a centralized forum that allows students to interact with peers on their campus as well as others across the country. The site provides college kids a place to call their own without worrying that high school students and their parents could access their profiles.

Though fashioned like Facebook, the new social site is not keen on taking over the world, but has limited its membership to only college students, so you need a valid school email address to join TheCollegeLife. The site currently on beta version looks too simple and welcomes suggestions and criticisms.

TheCollegeLife has basic features like other social networks such as blogs, profiles, image galleries and messaging. Plus, TCL features a video section, and forums for students to share and discuss life, assignments, profs, and just about anything they like. The site is continuing to improve and other great features are in the offing. So watch out!

Whether or not TheCollegeLife would be widely accepted by college kids and schools around the world remains unknown. What we know is that it can never compete with Facebook.

JASEzone MashUp Professionals in Google Maps Mashup

JASEzone is a new professional social spot designed to help you network with other professionals and expand your business prospects. Like other social networks such as LinkedIn, you can create your profile that identifies your professional accomplishments and goals. Friends and colleagues will find you just as you can network with other professionals aligned with your interests. You can add more JASEfriends by inviting others to join the JASEzone and connect to you.

Your network consists of your JASEfriends, your JASEfriends' JASEfriends, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of friends.You get your own inbox for on site messaging and a free blog. Join groups related to gaming, politics, music and more. Discuss your favorite topics in the forums, or auction and purchase items in the JaseBid section.

Through your JASEzone network you can:

• Find potential clients, subject matter experts, and business partners.
• Be found for future business initiatives.
• Discover JASEfriends that can help you reach job opportunities.
• Get introduced to other professionals through your JASEfriends.

The JASEzone team recently integrated the profiles of its active users into a Google Maps Mashup. Currently only United States profiles show on the mashup but the team has plans to expand into Canada and eventually Europe, Asia, Central & South America and more.

FoodHood.com - Where Foodies Meet and Eat

Could you have imagined that any social networking site would connect people who love food to one place? As funny as this may seem, a new social community for food lovers worldwide has been launched to cater for all your foodie needs.

FoodHood.com is an online food in da hood that provides its community with great food, recipes, photos, secrets, prizes, restaurants, exotic and new food discoveries—everything a foodie could dream of. In the FoodRoom, you can discuss anything food, and you can also share photos of your favorite restaurant, backyard BBQ steak, favorite wine, etc in the FoodBook. You can check out The Scoop for the latest quirky food news and stories, or you can simply check out recipes for dinner.

I made the mistake of searching for some menus and not only did what I found whet my appetite, I started getting hungry. Ouch! My stomach! Here are a few of the menus...

Pork loin and Salmon/Yorkshire pudding Dip for HaiNam chicken/Pickled vegetable

Livesteez - The New Video Sharing Place for Hip-Hop and African-American Entertainment News

Have you ever wanted a place where you can meet people and discuss current events and politics while networking? The place is Livesteez - a new online social network and a forum especially devoted to urban youth which allows members to upload and share videos, discuss current events and politics, as well as network.

Livesteez news feeds and discussion boards almost exclusively feature Hip-Hop- or African-American- focused stories. View here, here and here. Livesteez is a perfect example of a specific social networking community that does not rest on its demographic differences, but adds innovative applications (video sharing in a social network, exclusive artist contracts) to keep its technology current and members satisfied.



But Livesteez might need to promote it's site better to reach audiences. The discussion forums seems to be begging for attention (who cares to talk?) and Livesteez appears to have just a handful of members.

Via: (Killerstartups)

Fiction Folks Mash And Make Money At StoryMash.com

Now, this really got my attention. Probably because I have a flare for fiction. A new social community called StoryMash, for collaboration, constructive criticism and a place to experiment and discover different writing styles is mashing up fiction readers and writers together.

StoryMash is a place where fiction folks start new stories, continue existing stories, or take a story in a different direction by adding a chapter to its middle! All the while earning money for every chapter they publish on StoryMash. If you are a reader, you can vote for your favorite chapters and choose how you want the story to continue. After reading a chapter you can select from among multiple followup chapters. And while reading a chapter if you have a great idea on what should happen next, you can register and submit a followup chapter!

The idea is similar to Helium where writers are paid from $20 to $200 for each article selected by their partner publishers. The difference is that with StoryMash, you pay yourself for each work you publish on StoryMash depending on the number of votes you get for your story.

Here is how it works:

If you're a fiction writer and want the world to know about your work, you will post your story to StoryMash.com. Then, other authors can add follow-up, or even middle chapters to existing chapters written by others. Branching chapters compete with each other based on the vote ranking of registered readers. Eventually, the best storylines will evolve into the most entertaining, and profitable storytelling possible.

The whole idea is a a collaborative system of user generated content where StoryMash provides a fair contract for writers; writers keep their copyright, and grant StoryMash a non-exclusive license so that StoryMash can adapt and possibly resell combined works. Plus, all authors are paid over 50% of all revenue made by the content they publish.

There are also periodic writing contests, and this February, over $500 in prizes will be given away. So start posting on StoryMash by share your creative writing with the world, and earning some cool cash.

Have fun!