Vrinne, still in its infancy, is a new social network for South Africans, both locally and internationally. Development on the site began in January 2007 and is still underway. Vrinne was founded by Wayne May, a 25 year old South African who currently resides in California, USA. In an e-mail Wayne describes Vrinne:
Vrinne is somewhat of a mix between MySpace and SAReunited, with the center of focus on the members school.
Since the site is still under development I will not run it into the ground, nor will I be too complimentary towards it. They are currently in communication with Zoopy to incorporate its video service into Vrinne. They are going to need good marketing to capture the South African market which already has loyal members on MySpace and Facebook.
The Good:
- Find Old Class Mates
Currently with just under 100 registered users you probably won’t find anyone just yet, however once the site begins to take shape and its member base increases it could become a great resource for finding old class mates. - Easy To Use
Registering, setting up a profile and browsing the site are all very easy to do. - Live Chat
Live chat has been built into Vrinne. How this will cope as their member base increases is debatable, as the page reloads every 2 seconds. This could put strain on the server as well as affect the chat service.
The Bad
- Private Profiles
The public can’t view registered member’s profiles. I don’t think this is the best move, it might work for Facebook but when you are trying to find old class mates it would be great to view their profile without registering. Public profiles will encourage users to register so they can contact their old class mates. - No Friendly Profile URL
It would be great if the profile URL was much simpler. eg: http://www.vrinne.com/m/Tyler_Reed
I would really like to review this service again once it is complete and has more to offer. It has the potential to reunite South Africans all over the world.
Screenshots:
Tags: social networking, web 2.0
Another Social Network…hmmm, if these S-N’s don’t offer any really exciting and new features I fear that they are wasting their time. Facebook at this stage is so dominating, and further allows anyone to start any sort of social group within it that copycat ideas will struggle immensely to become successful. My argument here is that why should I register to ANOTHER social network, a SA specific one for instance, if I can just create a group on Facebook and utilize the users registered there already…
Gregor: Agreed, some serious innovation is needed!
I just tried to login and they didn’t have my school listed. If there service is based around school primarily surely they should go out of their way to ensure they list all possible schools without discriminating!?
Must agree with Gregor, innovation and Specific South African Services must be offered to attract people away from the facebook vibe.
Hey TR + readers
Nice to see the SA flag flying proud on another site out there.
Like any other site or blog or profile on the web, Vrinne and their members are free to embed Zoopy videos or photos anywhere they like, using the embed code provided.
Good luck Wayne!
Yep, you know what I want to say about this…
I would have no use for this, I have a group for my school, university, residence and any other interest on Facebook already. Why would I want to move?
Maybe if they can strike a deal with that ridiculously irritating Namesdatabase.com….
Oh yeah,
can’t you somehow use the API that facebook has opened up and play around on top of that? Facebook is already gained way too much traction for users to move from there.
I agree with Uno, that’s exactly the problem with the SN services. They don’t really have anything new to offer, and what better way to utilise Facebook’s users than to just start a specific group and use that as a network in itself…did i already say that?
Thanx for the review Tyler.
I do not expect everybody to join Vrinne. Many people out there are happy with what they are using right now, and I completely appreciate that. Since you all shared your opinion in your comments, I would like to know if you have ideas for features that Vrinne might use? (What will make Vrinne attract people like you?)
I appreciate the comments, negative or positive, because that is what makes Vrinne the ultimate challenge. How can I make all the comments positive?