Introduction-

This is the most popular online social networking site in UK, New Zealand and Ireland. It allows users to share photos and videos, listen to music and staying connected. Launched in the year 2005, it is also very popular in USA. It s number three in popularity there just after myspace and facebook. This year in March, bebo was acquired by AOL. There are plans to expand bebo in various other languages like German and French, after the Polish version was launched recently. Not many know but bebo is an acronym for “Blog Early, Blog Often”

Features

Users can register for free at this site. Their profile may be public or private depending on the user’s preference. The customized background of the profile page is called Skin. Users can post blogs, connect with friends and stay connected to college friends. After registering you can share videos and photos, upload music and music albums. On the home menu, users can see who the recent visitors on his page were. They can see their friend’s updated pages in terms of any new videos or photos.  Bebo music, originally called bebo bands, permits bands to create profile and provides them a platform to showcase their music. It has the band member list, and their songs which can be clubbed together into albums. These songs may be added to any user’s playlist also.  Just last year, Bebo Authors was launched. Here authors can upload their chapters and get them evaluated. Books are not displayed on the profile page like bands. Groups were added to pages lately. Members have an option to choose and join a group which they relate to. These groups may be educational or just general.  

Bebo mobile allows the users to make changes in their profiles through heir mobile phones, upload photos using MMS and receive texts. Bebo nation has a virtual map and it allows the users to buy a ‘land’, in other words, pixels and they can put their picture or any other image of their choice on that area. If any other user clicks on that picture, he can visit your profile. The cost of a 10×10 pixel is $0.10!

Further there are a number of applications like ‘who likes you’ and MindJolt games for the users to join in.

Tips

It is imperative to choose a privacy option as soon as you begin because by default the ‘public’ option is saved. Bebo has three privacy options; public, private and fully private. Public profiles can be seen by anyone, private ones are accessible to friends and contacts. Fully private option limits the viewing to your direct friends only as these profiles are not part of any group. Bebo also allows the users to set the photos as private so that nobody can copy it. Bebo account is not for young children that are below thirteen years of age. Have only one bebo account as remembering passwords for many will be difficult and there are more chances of hacking.

Newbie friendly rating

With rivals like facebook, MySpace, tagged, bebo has still made a place for itself and the future looks brighter. Bebo gets our newbie rating of 9 on 10. as navigating through the site is a little difficult.