Remember Marc Andreessen? Perhaps not. But he played his part in the history of the Internet. Way back in 1993 he built X Mosaic, the first widely used Web browser. He’s now involved in social networking – building the software that is, rather than the actual getting out and meeting people. Ning is his latest project and TechCrunch, a blog that devotes itself to news of deals in the computer world, reports that it has just secured major funding.
Ning is unlike the mainstream social networking services like Facebook and MySpace in that you can create your own networks, or what MIT’s Technology Review calls ‘mini-MySpaces’ or ‘social nicheworks’. Ning is one of the growing band of what TechCrunch describes as ‘white label’ social networking sites: ones in which Ning provides the networking infrastructure and then steps back, allowing the user to build, customise and brand their own network.
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Tech Lunch 