This post was written by Jody Jonnson
America Online has rolled out a new version of its social-networking website Bebo in a bid to make it a central gathering point for people’s online lives. Bebo used technology from freshly-acquired Socialthing to give users easy access to pictures, status changes and other data routinely shared at communally-oriented websites. Bebo provides continuously updated local news feeds and lets users check Gmail, Yahoo mail or AOL mail without leaving the social networking website. A “recommendation engine” delivers video, music, and games tailored to Bebo users’ tastes.
Property Network, a new dedicated social network for property investors worldwide has been launched this month. The website provides a central online community for investors, agents, landlords and the like to meet, discuss ideas and develop their contacts and business potential. The Property Network ( http://www.property-networks.net) provides members with a space to communicate with people from the industry, upload images and videos, post blogs, and discuss all areas of property investment in the forums.
Relatip.com is the first online community for Intellectual Property attorneys and other practitioners that has been officially launched at the International Trademark Association annual meeting. After the launch, Relatip.com CEO said “Intellectual Property networking goes online.” Relatip.com is a joint venture of a patent and trademark attorneys’ law firm and a software company. It is a social network that allows each IP professional to register, write a blog, upload video content, ask and answer questions at the professional forums, and be updated with the recent news and events in the field.
The first faith-based multilingual online community has launched in time for Christmas. Providing an online community for people who want to impact their world, the new www.cross.tv combines the best of social networking with high quality HD streaming and a multilingual communications platform. Not only can users upload videos, pictures, publish blogs, add friends and even develop their own sub-networks for their families, churches, ministries or projects. They can also communicate with others and raise awareness of different causes using cross.tv’s unique “cross pollination” functionalities which allows them to publish content in multiple languages.
Mobile operator 3 has unveiled a phone designed for accessing Web 2.0 services such as Facebook. 3 hopes the phone will do for data consumption what Apple’s iPhone has done for smartphone uptake: light the blue touchpaper. The device has been designed for always-on integration with a range of mobile social-networking and IM services, including Facebook, Windows Live Messenger and Skype.The phone is client-based so it synchronises in the background with web services such as Facebook, pulling in contact and profile data and updating it automatically.
AdaptiveBlue has announced the launch of its new social networking web browser plug-in. The Glue plug-in works by showing users visiting a particular website what their friends looked at on the same site and any comments they had on specific item. Websites such as Amazon, Last.fm, Netflix, Yahoo! Finance, Wine.com and Citysearch are supported by the plug-in. Glue remembers the last 20 items browsed and allows users to click on a ‘Like’ button to show that they favour a particular product, as well as add comments in the ’2Cents’ box.
Internap Network Services Corporation, a global provider of end-to-end Internet business solutions, has announced that it is working with SmacChat.com to provide spirited sports fans a forum for communicating about their favorite teams. Internap’s incomparable Content Delivery Network (CDN) is being leveraged by SmacChat.com to build an expansive online venue for its users that will be able to scale as memberships increase. Internap’s CDN enables SmacChat.com to stream online video, such as highlights and clips of different games. In addition, the CDN integrates ad services as well, providing an additional source of revenue for the site. Internap’s CDN is unique in the industry in that it is based on patented route optimization networking technology and Internap’s global infrastructure of Private Network Access Points (PNAPs).
Rocketalk has announced a partnership with LG Electronics India, following which all the new LG KT610 and KF750 mobile phone models will have the Rocketalk mobile social networking application pre-loaded on them. Subsequently, other models of handsets in 
Intridea Inc., the agile enterprise Web 2.0 company, has announced the general availability of CrowdSound. The new on-demand social feedback tool allows enterprise websites and social networking sites to gather, organize and respond to suggestions from their customers for just $10 per month. Because CrowdSound requires only minimal Web developer knowledge to implement, businesses of all sizes can quickly realize the power of interactive, Web-based customer feedback.
Ben Keighran, the Founder of Bluepulse, has recently announced the launch of an innovative mobile communication application also called the ‘Bluepulse.’ Based on a proprietary technology platform called OADP (Open Application Delivery Platform), this application will be used by people in over 190 countries for social networking. This social networking application will be geared exclusively for easy and free text messaging amongst the users of web-enabled mobile phones. The company is regularly expanding the list of compatible devices with this application. It has moved a step further by providing a custom-fit messaging window to the iPhone users. Bluepulse, as many other social networking software’s, is listed in Apple’s App Store and can be downloaded free of cost.