For example RecruitingBlogs is a popular social network that exists on Ning. I am a member of RecrutingBlogs (and a few others), but the networks on Ning are autonomous: not one big Ning network.

LinkedIn and Facebook, though they have recently created “groups” with limited functionality, are primarily grown by increasing the numbers of individual members. Each member’s primary view is their personal page, their friends, their career, their musical tastes, etc…

As the article points out, Ning is the greatest contributor to the growth of social networks with a full array of functions for each new network created; some die on the vine, while others thrive. The driving force behind each network is a shared association with others i.e. a true social network.

While setting up a social network on Ning, is almost as easy to set up as an individual web-blog (i.e. wordpress or blogger), because it is intuitively collaborative, each network’s potential for driving traffic and in turn influencing thought and action is almost exponentially more powerful.

I just can’t place it in the same category as a facebook, Linkedin, Friendster, twitter or XING. I think Ning is extremely unique and currently the best platform to take social networking to the next level.