And you mocked pay per post…

MyBabyOurBaby.com launched on valentines day of 2008, and seems that me and my co-founder Beau Lebens were on the same page as TotSpot. Since both MyBabyOurBaby and TotSpot seem to be identical in focus. We also take the same approach of a some-what social network around a child, but don’t really feel that’s what it’s purpose is. A network of memories really. Where family and friends can contribute their photos and stories, and a parent can discover memories they didn’t know existed.

I don’t want to go into detail what our sites all about, but really wanted to comment back to a few of the comments above. I can somewhat agree with the people that say there is only about a 4 year lifespan of a member on these types of sites, but what’s wrong with that? I feel like that’s the part of my life that I don’t remember, and I wish there was some kind of documentation I could look back on in my own life. I don’t think it should be someone’s goal as a company to trap you into something for life, but for you to really help someone in the time that they are a member. I mean if you’re a busy parent that wants to have a little scrapbook, but really can’t find the time. Maybe grandma or aunt jenny do have the time. You invite them and they can upload photos and write stories, which I see is a big stress reliever. You’re saving memories and that’s really the point of any of these sites. They only happen once.

Anyway I hope you guys check out MyBabyOurBaby.com and let me know what you think.

http://www.mybabyourbaby.com

Presenting the Youngest Social Networking Profiles…Ever.

Highly successful http://www.babyspot.com emerges to revolutionize the way families and parents interact with one another. Parents create profiles for their children that allow the world to watch them grow each day. The site offers blogs, videos, pictures, comment features, and parenting-based content.

Miami, FL (PRWeb) Jan. 21, 2008 - With the birth of a child came the birth of one of the Internet’s greatest ideas. Though the Internet now offers a substantial number of social networking sites, none exist like the one created by co-founders James Rivera and Zameer Upadhya.

Shortly after welcoming their first child Danny into the world, James and Monica Rivera became bombarded with requests for news, pictures and videos of their little bundle of joy. Seeking to quell the mob that demanded to see the new family member, the fresh-faced parents logged onto the Internet and started posting pictures here and there and sending scattered emails that were sometimes filtered out by Spam-screeners. Frustrated by their need to act as technical support for the newborn’s various online profiles and photo sites, the parents turned to long-time friend Zameer who, as it turns out, was experiencing equal chagrin at how challenging it had become to try and receive news about his distant baby-cousins. Together, they hatched a plan to create an entirely new breed of social networking site that would forever change the lives of parents the world over.

They created Babyspot.com, a site that allows users—specifically parents—to create profiles that give them the ability to post news and pictures of their children for fellow parents and family members to see. The prevailing sentiment is that not everyone can completely appreciate the sublime joy of becoming a parent, but Babyspot.com brings together the people who do.

Delving into the site, users can see the site offers as many (if not more) features as most social profile sites. With the ability to write biographies and blogs, and update pictures and videos, parents can create an immersing baby-centric experience for the viewing pleasure of their families and friends. The simplicity of the site eliminates the need for tired newborn parents to spend what little energy they have left bouncing from site to site and writing countless emails to relatives, over and over. The site is very user-friendly, and has thus far been incredibly successful at keeping families in touch and creating friendships between parents living cities and countries apart. The creators of the site even understood that not all parents want the world to see their children, so they added an option that allows you to block your child’s profile from anyone who was not personally invited to view it.

Just like watching their own child learn and become successful, the Riveras will be able to guide their website to a healthy future adulthood. With the recent explosion in popularity of networking sites, one thing is for certain: it’s worth keeping an eye on Babyspot.com to see what it’ll be when it grows up.

Bundlo - http://www.bundlo.com - (a baby website service) was launched in May 2007 and has 1400+ people using the service. I’m the only employee and the company has been (cheaply) funded by me. There are a number of competitors out there offering similar services. Just do a Google search for “baby websites” and start clicking.

As for all the comments concerning privacy:
Bundlo (and from what I gather from their comment, Totspot as well?) offers completely private sites by default. A child’s private information should not be shared with just anybody. Bundlo takes security seriously by allowing account holder’s to fully control who has access to their site and track their visits. No one (not even search engines) has access to a Bundlo site unless they have been invited by the account holder, which will then give them their own unique password. Of course, if the account holder chooses, they can opt to make their site public.

For those commenting about Mommy networks:
I won’t speak for the Totspot crew here, but this isn’t what Bundlo is about. There are tons of really good options out there for Mom’s to socially network among themselves. Maya’s Mom, Minti, CafeMom, ParentsConnect, etc. Bundlo, however, is about giving baby a private space online, for which none of those sites are really built.

Comments on age cut-off concerns:
Bundlo has at least one customer that use the site to keep their friends and family up-to-date with what is going on with their school-aged child. They are a military family stationed overseas, so it works well for them. There may be others, I don’t know. I only know about them because I was asked to log into their site in order to help them with some technical questions. So the cut-off is likely there, but it’s not set in stone at 2, 3 or 4 years of age.

I’m rambling now. But if you’re interested, check out Bundlo’s site to learn more. There’s a free account as well if you want to get in there and see what it’s all about. Or if you have any specific questions, you can find my contact info there too.

Cheers,

Mark
Founder, Bundlo

http://www.bundlo.com
http://blog.bundlo.com

Sharing baby photos, sharing stories, and social networking are all part of the same thing: online community.

It’s a good idea, no doubt. But creating a standalone site just for tots may not have enough gas in the tank to go far.

p.s. Arrington, do you have an investment in this startup? Just curious. Not sure if you have to disclose that given last year’s story on MayasMom.

http://www.mangosteennation.com

It’s a site for XanGo distributors.

Social networks really are good tools for bringing people together for things.

This is the perfect tool for ubermoms who need to share every freaking detail of their child’s otherwise boring lives pooping and spitting.

What’s next? A soshnet for people on the witness protection program.

This is crap.

http://www.juiceanalytics.com/.....dashboard/

vs.

http://www.crunchbase.com/asse...../14139.jpg

Ok, maybe I won’t be that bad. But this does seem like a way to share the adventure with friends and family.

One problem is they require some major changes in behaviors. My wife and I track lots of details about our son’s life, and take zillions of photos of every new smile or other item that probably bores the pants off our friends, but keeps us thoroughly engrossed. I don’t think either of us would flock to a Web site to start noting when he had his first tooth or other “diary-like” events.

I haven’t seen the site’s “social networking” features, but this is a good potential offering, depending on how they use it. We already have our friends and other parents for playdates, and there are plenty of ways to find new ones fairly easily. That said, there’s a lot to be had in seeking out similar values, wants, needs, etc of a community - for example, looking for certain products (and getting reviews of them), as well as service providers (pediatricians, nannies, babysitters, etc). If they do this aspect very well, I think that alone could get things rolling.

I’ve asked my wife to sign up for the beta (I already have a blog and private flickr profile for my son, so it’s really unnecessary for me, but I know I’m in the sub-1% who takes this level of effort). The other site I really like for “family” sharing of content is Multiply.com btw (although I don’t use it personally, for the same reason).

Lisa where in the world do you live - the Hamptons?

When you look at the 1.0 parenting sites that survived, it was because of the wider demographic that they went after that allowed the users to continue using the site long after discussions of breast vs. bottle were forgotten. CJ references a great point; BabyCenter has had forums for different age spans, multiples, etc. A lot of these companies have jumped so wholeheartedly on the “narrow focus means better services” bandwagon that they miss the point. You want parents to say “OMG, it’s great! I signed on when I was pregnant and have been there for eight years, still talking to the same great bunch of folks” rather than “Yeah, we used it for a while, but after little Bartleby turned four, it was useless so we moved on over to this other site that we love. I wish we’d just started out there.”