Just what the world needs: another Social Networking application – Net4mac. While it may seem as just another such application, this one operates in the less cluttered space of niche social networks – Mac users. Unlike web-based networks this calls for an application to be installed on Mac. It comes with Mac-integrated software that allows users to build profiles, add friends, contact other users, create events and search for members using specific criteria.
Net4Mac has 10,000 members thus far – not a patch on the mainline networks – and can verify if you are a Mac user or not simply by the Mac-only download. It furthers a feeling of community and gives the user a warm-fuzzy feeling to know that there are similar users in your community/city. Mac users are any way seen as a cult and such offering help them to find other cult members. At a coffee shop or at the airport when you pull out your Mac and if a fellow user Mac user is around there is bound to be a ‘connection’. When I logged on yesterday, the online members from India was minuscule but I was surprised to find users in places like Cochin and Pune.
When mainline social networks become too big, there is scope for such niche offerings. It’s like working in a huge office – it sets up separation – you tend to stick to small bunch of like-minded people. Such offerings can be sliced based on interests (Mac, gaming), segments (teens – like Bebo, career – like LinkedIn) and so on. Brands like Yaarii.com have also attempted to create a market for this themselves in social networking along the same principles. What next? Social Networking groups based on language/origing? Like a Bengali group?
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