100,000 Ning Social Networks

According to a post on the Ning blog dated September 23, "There are now 100,000 social networks on Ning. 70,000 of these networks have been created in the past seven months alone."

In a post yesterday, Gina Bianchini explained the differences between a Ning social network and a Facebook group. I joined Facebook a few weeks ago, and I'm not really impressed with it--especially when compared to Ning. In fact, I've only logged in two or three times since I joined.

The first thing I noticed is that when I receive a message in Facebook, the e-mail notification I receive doesn't include the message. I have to log in to actually read it. Also, my profile is the same no matter what group I join. In Ning, the creator of the network can change what profile information is requested for that particular network. Also, in Ning, people can't see what other social networks I belong to. In Facebook, apparently, every time I join a new group, my "friends" are notified--at least I'm informed when they do it.