FamilyLeaf – Private Family Social Network

FamilyLeaf - Private Family Social NetworkFamilyLeaf is an attempt to provide a private social network to members of the same family or to communities of close friends and acquaintances, small in number.

There have been in the past attempts to create similar sites, such as MyFamily.com, Famento.com or FamilyCrossings.com, but FamilyLeaf makes things very easy to get started and it’s completely free to use, at least for now. The webapp currently displays an invite signup screen, as it wants to prevent growing too fast too soon, but it’s expected to be able to obtain an account relatively fast.

FamilyLeaf was founded by Wesley Zhao and Ajay Mehta, two childhood friends. Compared to other early-stage startups, they took the effort to make the site as friendly as possible to foreign traffic. There are already localized versions in Italian, French or Spanish.

The site is backed by Y! Combinator and has been featured in the media in extensive reviews, such as this one (which appeared in TechCrunch). During their initial launch month, FamilyLeaf had 2’000 unique monthly visitors.

Google+ For Businesses and Organizations

Google+ for Businesses and Organizations

Google+ announced on 7th of November 2011 the immediate availability of Google+ Pages, a feature enabling businesses and organizations to create their own “space” on the Google+ network. The name of this feature has the potential to create some confusion among those that remember the now-defunct Google Page Creator, but for most people it won’t be an issue as they probably didn’t hear about it in the first place.

Since the initial launch of the service on 28th of June 2011, the ability of organizations to create their own space on the network has been a saga for corporations and social media professionals as they initially created company accounts only to be disabled by the Google Policy team (by stating that those accounts are forbidden in the initial phase of the service). Now anyone can create a page in the name of his organization, without restrictions.

In connection with this launch Google announced Direct Connect – a feature due to which brand names entered in search queries with the + sign as a prefix will return the Google+ Pages associated with the respective terms. This is currently working only in a limited number of instances but the company plans to make it more universal in the near future.

By enabling organizations to connect with their followers, Google+ addressed one of the service’s main missing features. Its continued success now largely depends on the array of benefits that both organizations and individual users will perceive once they’re connected via their favorite pages. For small business owners, this has the potential to become their first online presence by replacing the need for a website, especially if Google achieves seemingly integration of the feature with Google Maps, Google Sites and its other related services.

Socialcam – Share Mobile Videos With Friends

Socialcam

Socialcam is a mobile app available on both iPhone and Android which allows users to record videos from their mobile phones and then tag, upload and share them with the world at large (as well as browse, comment and like videos from their friends).

Socialcam was created by the Justin.tv team, which proved immensely useful to them in terms of expertise, reputation and infrastructure. Work on the site began in 2010 and it launched officially at the beginning of 2011. Until now it enjoys tens of thousands of users on a monthly basis.

The app can be installed for free from both the iTunes and the Android markets, where it enjoys a 4-star average rating (out of a maximum of 5). The app had 1 million downloads in its first four months, and one third of the users who have signed up for the service have also created at least one video in their account.

In October 2011 the company announced the addition of video filters to its list of features. The list of available filters includes Bohemian, Noir, Sepia and Rouge, along with experimental filters like Electronica, Acid and Foil. The company also announced that it reached over 2 million total downloads, which puts it in a great position for further growth in the near future as it continues to develop the app.

Pinterest.com – Publish and Discover Images Online

Pinterest.com

Pinterest.com defines itself as a virtual pinboard: it lets people organize and share all the beautiful things they find on the web. Users can pin images on their own boards or they can explore the content uploaded by the other site members.

An image added to Pinterest is called a pin; it can be added from a website using the Pin It button, or it can be uploaded from the users’ computers. Pins are organized in boards – collections of pins on the same theme or subject.

Images can be re-pined by users on their own boards. Each pin has a comments section where users can discuss interactively about the content. The site’s main page shows recently uploaded pins which were ranked highly in the community. It also offers a search function to discover pins using specific search keywords.

Pinterest is a simplified Tumblr with Instapaper-like web clipping. It combines the social networks’ sharing aspect with modern publishing and visualization technologies to create a unique experience in exploring and sharing images online. We invite you to give it a try.

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