So do you think that Facebook, the largest social network, that already has tons of privacy concerns should be venturing into location based tracking as well?  I mean it’s nothing new…sites like loopt and foursquare have been around for a while now doing practically the same thing…just with a much smaller user base. 

I think it’s great when successful companies try new things…I mean Facebook overtook MySpace in a fairly short amount of time…yet when it happened it seemed as though it happened overnight and MySpace seemed practically dead.  This was due to constant innovation and simplicity on Facebooks part.  I used MySpace a lot and never really cared for Facebook.  The first time I saw Facebook at my buddies house I was simply amazed at how fast the site ran, and how simple all of the features were. 

Back to the subject though, is Locations a good idea for such a large company that already has a bunch of media publicity about privacy issues?  Will this land Facebook into more hot water in the near future.  I can read the headlines now…”Woman murdered by jealous husband, which out with another man.”  The article would later go on to say that the jealous husband had tracked his wife’s whereabouts using Facebook. 

It’s cool to broadcast where you are to your friends if you really want to be availiable…but honestly, I think it’s a bit much.  I’m not a Facebook junky who posts everyday…and even if I were I wouldn’t want everyone to know where I was all the time.  If I wanted to meet up with friends I would text or call them over.  The world is becoming less social due to social networking and in a sense technology is taking us backwards.  Locations is a nice feature but I am opting out of this one.

How many of you have ever wanted to build your own social networking site?  We’ve all used the big sites like MySpace and Facebook, and heard how much money they are worth.  I know I dreamed of building a site and getting a peice of that billion dollar pie.

It’s not enough to just have a dream, or even a great social networking site idea…trust me =o)  I built an adult themed social networking site and in the begining things were amazing for such a new site.  I was getting 300+ new members a day!  I was getting so much traffic that I thought I was getting DDOS’d and started banning IPs that I thought were bots.  Once I caught up to my paranoia and realized that my little niche site was actually going places I unbanned all the IPs and just kept on building.

Sadly things didn’t keep growing as quickly as when I originally started the site, but on average I get 50-60 new members a day which is still nice.  I know I’ll never be Facebook with it’s 500 Million members, but I am okay with that…after all their can only be one Facebook so why bother trying to battle the big social networks.  I have enough competition in my niche to keep me competative.

Their are a lot of options when it comes to starting your social network.  Their are pre-built sites that you can use to create your community such as Ning, or you can buy social networking software such as phpFox, or Social Engine, or you can pick up a free script such as phpizabi or Elgg. Each one has it’s pros and cons.  To test an idea out it would probably be beneficial to go with a free option and see how much interest your site gets from the social networking world.  If you find a good niche that people like, I’d reccomend going with phpFox as it’s the best script I have found.

It’s got it’s perks having a social networking site…but I’ll save that for another day.

Just wanted to say hello and welcome to my site.  The purpose of this place is to discuss all things Web 2.0, but focus primarily on social networking and social media.  I am somewhat experienced with building websites and social networking and plan to share my experience and knowledge with who ever stumbles across to this page.

Stay tuned for some cool features that you might not know about on popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.  Also look for information on smaller up and coming sites like Foursquare. 

Have you ever wanted to have your own social network?  I did and started a site not too long ago with a great script.  I’m currently migrating to version two of my script right now and it is a full challenge that keeps me entertained and actually supplements my income.  I’ll get more into detail about my social network in the near future. 

Stay tuned!