Ning Adds Apps to Its White-Label Social Networking Platform

Ning, which offers a platform for creating a customized social network, is now offering applications for users' sites that add new capabilities in areas such as communication, e-commerce and collaboration.

By Jeremy Kirk
Fri, September 11, 2009

IDG News Service — Ning, which offers a platform for creating a customized social network, is now offering applications for users' sites that add new capabilities in areas such as communication, e-commerce and collaboration.

The more than 90 apps available are based on OpenSocial APIs (application programming interfaces), which allow applications to run on multiple Web sites without developers having to change them.

Ning is encouraging third-party developers to contribute. Ning must approve applications that go into itsApp Directory to ensure they comply with its terms of service. Developers can also create an application and put it only on their network and not have it listed in the App Directory.

An application called "Cartfly" lets a Ning site administrator set up an e-commerce store to sell goods. "Ustream.tv" enables video streaming and chat. On the collaboration side, there are several applications for Zoho, a Web-based office suite, which allow users to access their Zoho calendar and retrieve documents, among other functions. Other categories of applications include games and those specific to fund-raising.

Ning is carving its niche by offering a white-label social networking platform with a high level of personalization for people with specific interests. The number one social network, Facebook, allows people to create groups, but Ning lets its users design a highly-customized standalone site.

The company was founded in 2004 by Gina Bianchini and Marc Andreessen, one of the developers of the Mosaic Web browser by Netscape Communications. Ning says its platform has been used to create 1.5 million networks with 33 million registered users.

Ning generates revenue by using Google's AdSense contextual advertising system to place ads on free networks. Network administrators, can, however pay Ning for the right to run their own advertising. Other features that Ning charges for are the right to use a custom domain name, removal of promotional links that Ning places on free sites and additional storage and bandwidth.

You are here: Applications » News

Most Recent Applications Stories

White Papers »

Accelerate time to application value

For your IT organization to keep pace with the business, you need a new, faster approach to infrastructure deployment-an approach that increases agility and accelerates time to application value. That's HP Converged Systems. Built on Converged Infrastructure, these systems deliver the industry's first portfolio of pre-integrated, tested, and optimized infrastructure solutions for applications running in virtual, cloud, dedicated, or hybrid environments.

Top 10 Myths About Virtualizing Business-Critical Applications

Even though virtualization has brought positive change to enterprise IT over the last decade, some skepticism remains about how valuable virtualization can be in the way companies deliver and run business applications. Uncover the truth about how you can run your business critical applications with confi dence without sacrifi cing
availability or service quality-and at lower costs.

The Hidden Truth About Virtualizing Business-Critical Applications

This IDG whitepaper highlights key findings based on the Quickpoll Survey conducted with more than 300 Enterprise and Commercial IT decision makers worldwide about the state of their virtualization of business critical applications. This paper answers such questions as: What drivers are pushing companies to extend virtualization beyond servers? and What value are they realizing? Central to the paper are key results that expose risks of the past (fears of limited ISV support, performance impact) no longer are a factor for companies moving to 80+% virtualized.

Enterprise Java Applications on VMware: Unix to Linux Migration Guide

This guide focuses on key considerations for IT Architects who are in the process of migrating Java applications from UNIX to Linux as part of their VMware server consolidation project.

Virtualizing Tier 1 Applications: A Critical Step on the Journey Toward the Private Cloud

This IDC white paper explains how much of the Enterprise IT community is at a crossroads in extending their journey to the private cloud: Companies must virtualize their business critical applications in order to reap the benefits of cloud computing. The paper also includes two case studies and a sidebar highlighting the experiences of three enterprises with virtualizing their business-critical applications, which include Oracle and Microsoft SQL databases, SAP and enterprise Java, and a Microsoft Exchange email system.

Best Practices Guide: Microsoft Exchange 2010 on VMware

This guide provides best practice guidelines for deploying Exchange Server 2010 on vSphere.

Webcasts »

Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere

Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as support considerations

Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere

Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and disaster recovery and support considerations.

Virtualize Business-Critical Applications with Confidence

Virtualizing business-critical applications has become a key focus for organizations as they move along their virtualization journey. With the launch of VMware vSphere® 5, VMware is helping customers accelerate the deployment of business-critical applications, including Exchange, SQL, SAP and Oracle.

Discover the Benefits of Virtualization for Federal Applications

Want to say goodbye to missed SLAs? VMware can help you virtualize mission-critical applications such as Oracle, MS Exchange and SharePoint to achieve dramatic improvements in uptime, performance and responsiveness. In this webcast, we'll discuss the key benefits of virtualizing your agency's most critical applications and Oracle databases as a necessary first step in fulfilling OMB's mandate to move IT services to the cloud. With VMware, you'll be on the way to quick, effective and full compliance.

When Java EE Is Overkill: Lightweight Application Server Benefits

The complexity, cost and technological bloat of traditional Java EE application servers are often barriers to running a lean and efficient IT organization. Increased need for scalability and rapid application delivery are driving businesses to reconsider the platform they use for application deployment. By combining the portability and agility of the Spring framework with a lightweight application server, your organization can meet business demands while staying within budget constraints. VMware vFabric™ tc Server is a modern, lightweight Java application server based on Apache Tomcat. It improves developer productivity, control and manageability-and is the most flexible platform for virtualizing Java applications and workloads for the cloud. View this webcast to learn about real-world examples of companies that have adopted VMware vFabric tc Server and how to plan for future cloud deployments.

Introduction to VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5

Traditional disaster recovery solutions are often too expensive, complex and unreliable to meet business requirements. As a result, IT departments are hesitant to expand disaster protection beyond their most critical applications, largely because they are uncertain whether the quality of the protection is really worth its cost. VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager 5 is the market-leading disaster recovery product that addresses this situation for organizations of all kinds. It complements VMware vSphere to ensure the simplest and most reliable disaster protection for all virtualized applications.

Newsletter Sign-Up »

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter