Ning.com

Online service Ning allows users to create and share their own social networks without any need for specialized know-how or programming skills. Ning social networks can be public or private and can include blogs, forums, photo and video sharing (like Flickr or YouTube), and a host of other community features.

Ning is free for network creators as long as they are satisfied to host Ning's advertising and have ning.com as part of their web address. For those who prefer an ad-free social network or want to profit from their own ads, Ning costs $20.00 per month. Additionally, the ning.com address can be masked for a fee of $5.00 per month.

• "Ning can be used to create a fully functional and customized social network in minutes."—Michael Arrington
• "By New Year's Eve 2010, Ning estimates, it will host some 4 million social networks serving up billions of page views daily."—FastCompany.com
• "Today’s social networking services are fantastic, but they are very similar in approach to AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy in the early nineties. They have a fixed and rigid view of what people can do."—Ning founder Marc Andreessen