Bebo Crazy (bebo.com)

Member Name: GuruOnAMountain

Product:	bebo.com
Date:	22/04/08 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, allows you to keep in contact with friends, free.

Disadvantages: Might appeal more to younger people.

Social networking is currently a huge deal and there are plenty of social networking sites online now, including Facebook, MySpace and my personal favourite, Bebo.

I must admit, I was reluctant to be sucked into this craze a few years back but being a Uni student, I soon realised most of my friends had Bebo accounts and I didn't. Feeling a bit left out and a tad nosy, I signed up. Initially I was a bit overwhelmed by it and didn't really understand why I would need to use a site such as Bebo when I could easily just chat to my friends in person or send them a text, and so initially my account lay dormant. Eventually, during those long, lazy student summer holidays, boredom hit and I decided to do some work on my page and I've been a convert ever since.

The main point of these social networking sites is that each user creates a 'profile' page, giving information on themselves and then can search and add friends of theirs. Your profile page can be as simple or elaborate as you choose to make it. It could be completely plain with just a small piece of information about you or you could fill it with information, pictures, videos and even a blog.

You can also send messages to people, both to those people who you've already added as friends and to people who you haven't. You can either send these messages as private or as public. If you choose the latter option, your message will be displayed on their profile page. Or you could choose to send them a mail message and you can add video, sound, photos, drawings etc. to this.

Furthermore, you can draw on a friends, or your own, white board using a simple program similar to Paint which is built into Bebo.

If you want to display video on your profile, you can upload video from your own computer or input a YouTube URL and photos are quick and easy to upload, too. You can tag photos with descriptions and place them in separate albums, also with descriptions. You can either allow other Bebo users to use your own photos or you can block this feature. I've found this really useful when I've been away holidays with friends etc. Instead of emailing all of them the photos I've taken when we've been away, I just put them up on Bebo and they can add the ones they like to their own albums. Adding your photos to Bebo also means you have a backup of them online if your computer should ever lose them.

More recently, Bebo has added applications, similar to Facebook apps, but to be honest, I don't feel these are of as high a quality. They include things such as a fun quizzes such as "Which cartoon character are you?" and TV show fan clubs that you can become a member of and display this on your profile.

Other fun features the Bebo includes allow you to create polls and quizzes that visitors to your profile can participate in and a space for creating a blog that your visitors can view.

The real beauty of Bebo, however, is that it easily allows you to keep in contact with people you otherwise would lose touch with and all for free. Old school friends can look you up and add you and you can casually send messages to acquaintances that you probably don't feel you know well enough to phone or text but who you still are interested in keeping in touch with. You can share aspects of your lif with friends and acquaintances alike that would previously have been hard to do unless you were able to design your own website. You can quickly and easy add text, photos, videos etc. to display what you've been up to and what your interests are without having to get bogged down in any web programming or paying for a web domain.

Registration is simple as is updating your page. Profiles can be made private so that only people registered as your friends can see them, which is clearly an important concern for many people and as its so free and easy to use, you really have nothing to lose by registering.

The own downside to Bebo, I feel, is that it is aimed at a younger audience. I feel its image thends to lend itself to use by high school kids and uni students and may not appeal aesthetically to those in their late 20s and beyond. Yet, this is a shame as I feel it is much easier to use than Facebook and MySpace. Also, of course, if your friends aren't registered to Bebo, then there is little point of being registered yourself.

Summary: A popular social networking site.