Redefining Social Networking

What is social networking? Social networking has traditionally been the practice of gathering connections between individuals. The concept is simple, gather as much information as you can about someone, and then allow others with similar information to find that person, basically opening your whole life to the internet.

The current social networking scene is a cluttered environment that intends to capture different aspects of someone’s life. Just to name a few, LinkedIn focuses on your professional career, Facebook was designed to link you with individuals of similar backgrounds and interests, and MySpace seems to allow one to explore a more creative side. That being said, they all have one thing in common, they want to encapsulate as much information about you as possible to share with the world. Some would argue that if you put it out there, then you can’t complain when the information becomes available someplace else. This may be true, but so many of the social networking sites have a tendency to ask for the information in a way that does not really explain how it is going to be used and where it is going to be displayed. This is where somethingcoolhappened.com differs.

Somethingcoolhappened.com is designed to protect the anonymity of the users in a couple of different ways.

1. Your real name and email address is not displayed anywhere. You have a username and an alias, that is it.
2. Profiles are simple. Your profile lists basic information about you, your alias, age, country, and how long you have been a member. That is it.
3. To add someone as a connection you must either find their profile page or know their email address, no more open searches, like other social networking sites.

The concept of somethingcoolhappened.com is not to have a bunch of connections, but instead to upload cool happenings of the day, whether that is a photo, story or video. That isn’t all there is to the site, there is a pretty cool competition piece, and another area that will allow you to explore your creative side, but that is another discussion. Somethingcoolhappened.com has one goal; redefine the definition of social networking.