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"Ning, the service that lets you build your own social websites, just launched three new sites that may take their offering to the mainstream.  The first allows you to build a YouTube clone, the second lets you make your own photo-sharing site ala Flickr, and the third allows you to create a lightweight social network.\nNing Videos\nNing Videos allows you to literally build your own YouTube within a few seconds.  The site appears at yoursite.ning.com, and you can customize the way it looks, as well as enabling video moderation and managing all the content.  All these settings are adjusted through the Ningbar at the top of the page, meaning that you don't need to leave your site while editing it - I've always thought that Ning was well-designed, and this just proves it.  Your site is free and ad supported, but you can also pay a small fee to run your own ads or use your own domain name.  You and your users can upload videos via a computer or cellphone, or republish them from sites like YouTube, Google Video and Metacafe.  These videos can be named, tagged and plotted on a map.  Other users can then rate the clips, leave comments, add them to their favorites, bookmark them to watch later and embed them on external sites like MySpace, hi5 and Piczo.  (If the video originally came from another site, it retains the player from that site).  And of course visitors can rank clips by most popular, highest rated and most recent.  There's a groups feature, too, allowing people with similar interests to connect.  All in all, a perfect clone of YouTube's core features.\nNing Photos\nThe second new site, Ning Photos, does the same thing for photos - allowing you to create your own Flickr or Webshots.  In common with the video site, you and your visitors can upload photos, plot them on a map, rate them, tag them and add them to a list of favorites.  There's a groups feature, too, as well as albums and the ability to view a photo in many different sizes.  Unlike the videos site, you can't add photos that are hosted elsewhere, but I'm sure that Photobucket and Imageshack would want to help out if Ning were willing.  Another neat feature: the ability to create slideshows and embed them on MySpace, Xanga and the rest.  With every photo service now offering MySpace slideshows (including MySpace themselves), this is an essential feature for a Flickr clone.\nNing Group\nLast of all - Ning Group.  This is very close to a \"build your own MySpace\", although it falls slightly short - you can create a basic profile, add friends, upload photos, create events and discuss issues in the forum, but there's no obvious way to insert MySpace layouts, MySpace codes, trackers and other add-ons.  In fact, the html you can use in your page seems to be limited.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that any MySpace comparisons aren't totally accurate.  Group feels like the least convincing of the three sites, but if there's a way to integrate it with Wordpress, I'd be very interested.\nNing is one of those really cool sites that I always forget to visit - if you sat down with it for a few hours, you could create some really neat stuff.  There's just so much potential: for users, for businesses, and for customizing the Ning platform to meet lots of different needs.  The latest products hit the sweet spot because they reflect current trends: creating your own Hot or Not clone is a gimmick, but creating a niche video site for your community has real value.  There's a feeling that the service hasn't really taken off, but I'm hoping they'll eventually get traction.  White label video sites are doing good business, and in some ways Ning Videos is doing the same thing with an even lower barrier to entry.  \nI'm a fan of these latest moves, but that's by no means a prediction that the site will now succeed.  That said, it'll only take one highly successful app running on the Ning platform the justify the whole project.\n\nHey Ning Users!\nMashable's Ning account is HERE - feel free to add Mashable to your friends if you sign up, or you're already a member.\n\n\nNing Videos\n\nNing Photos\n\nNing Group"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2006/09/28/ning-build-your-own-youtube-flickr-or-myspace/>