Regardless of which side of the social networking fence you're on (it's here to stay / it's a fad), it's hard to argue that social networking isn't a huge part of today's Internet user's world.  For most people, "social networking" conjures images of megasites like MySpace and Facebook.  But if Ning has anything to say about that, social networking will soon include sites like 24 Map and Who Is Keppler?… and every user-generated niche networking site in between.

 

I stumbled upon a post on a C|Net blog talking about Ning's and it's newest fanboy:  old-school technology icon Marc Andreessen (of Netscape fame).

 

The way Andreessen sees it, the future of social networking can be paralleled with the transformation of the web since the height of the portal services of years gone by: 

And in a nutshell, that's what Ning offers.  Without writing a single line of code, anyone can drag and drop their way into a customized social networking site centered around any topic they want.  Videos, blogs, photos, music, forums… Ning offers them all on a customized, pick and choose basis.  It's what Andreessen called "MySpace 2.0".  Basic membership is free.  But it's also limited.

 

While the service offers the ability to host your social network on your own domain, and display advertisements, that stuff doesn't come cheap.  And if you plan on storing and posting a lot of photos and movies to the service (which is one of the hallmarks of social networking), you'll have to pay for extra storage and bandwidth.  A maxed out account, complete with advertising rights, 5 GB of storage, and 100 GB of bandwidth, will run you nearly $30 a month.

 

So my question becomes… is it worth it?

 

"MySpace 1.0" is free and offers the ability to create subject-specific groups.  Those free MySpace accounts offer a virtually unlimited amount of storage and bandwidth.  And while it's a little more difficult, a MySpace profile and/or group page can be "pimped" to look like just about anything.

 

Are users going to be jumping ship in mass to pay money for something they can do for free with accounts they already have set up, connected, established, and "pimped"?

 

I'm not a heavy social networker… so I don't know.  You tell me.  Would you spend $30 a month for a customized Ning social network?