Category --- Social Networking
Coming Soon – Alternatives to Facebook
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that Facebook had added its 500 millionth member. Facebook has only been around for six years and in that short time has become the reigning force in Social Media. To put that number in perspective, 500 million people includes the entire populations of both Brazil and the United States.
For Facebook though, with rapid growth has come bigger issues. A new national survey reveals that Facebook lags behind the insurance and airline industries in customer satisfaction ratings. Some reasons given for Facebook’s poor reviews were questions regarding privacy and security, abrupt changes in policies and the amount of advertising.
Does that mean everyone is at the mercy of Facebook? Not necessarily. New contenders to the Facebook throne have started to rise up.
1. Diaspora - "The privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, open source social network."
Pronounced die-as-poe-ra, this is the brainchild of four college students fed up with the privacy problems with Facebook. They set out to raise $10,000 for their project and achieved that goal within 12 days. One differentiating point of Diaspora is the concept of what they call "seeds". Facebook is a centralized server which holds all your information. A "seed" is your own personal server that you decide with who you will share your information. There is no official launch date yet for this service, but there are already over 2,000 members.
2. OneSocialWeb - "We dream of a world where all social networks are connected and work together in One Social Web.”
OneSocialWeb seeks to end the limits of today's traditional social networks. The main points of OneSocialWeb is to join together communication on all social networks through a common language, remove the forcing of terms and conditions on users, owning your data and freeing users from network-wide technical problems. OneSocialWeb is still in development and hasn't set a launch date.
3. Appleseed - "Open Source + Distributed Social Networking"
Appleseed wants to create an open source, fully distributed and decentralized social networking software. Appleseed will have the same sharing functionality as Facebook. The difference is in the software. There will be several compatible sites and the ability to change sites without losing any information. Appleseed is still in its development stage.
As the number of Facebook members grow, so does their frustration. And as their frustration increases, so does the desire for a different way of keeping in touch on the social web. Maybe one of these new services is the one for you. What new service are you looking forward to trying out?
For Facebook though, with rapid growth has come bigger issues. A new national survey reveals that Facebook lags behind the insurance and airline industries in customer satisfaction ratings. Some reasons given for Facebook’s poor reviews were questions regarding privacy and security, abrupt changes in policies and the amount of advertising.
Does that mean everyone is at the mercy of Facebook? Not necessarily. New contenders to the Facebook throne have started to rise up.
1. Diaspora - "The privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, open source social network."
Pronounced die-as-poe-ra, this is the brainchild of four college students fed up with the privacy problems with Facebook. They set out to raise $10,000 for their project and achieved that goal within 12 days. One differentiating point of Diaspora is the concept of what they call "seeds". Facebook is a centralized server which holds all your information. A "seed" is your own personal server that you decide with who you will share your information. There is no official launch date yet for this service, but there are already over 2,000 members.
2. OneSocialWeb - "We dream of a world where all social networks are connected and work together in One Social Web.”
OneSocialWeb seeks to end the limits of today's traditional social networks. The main points of OneSocialWeb is to join together communication on all social networks through a common language, remove the forcing of terms and conditions on users, owning your data and freeing users from network-wide technical problems. OneSocialWeb is still in development and hasn't set a launch date.
3. Appleseed - "Open Source + Distributed Social Networking"
Appleseed wants to create an open source, fully distributed and decentralized social networking software. Appleseed will have the same sharing functionality as Facebook. The difference is in the software. There will be several compatible sites and the ability to change sites without losing any information. Appleseed is still in its development stage.
As the number of Facebook members grow, so does their frustration. And as their frustration increases, so does the desire for a different way of keeping in touch on the social web. Maybe one of these new services is the one for you. What new service are you looking forward to trying out?
Print this Page
Send to a Friend