| URL | www.blogster.com |
|---|---|
| Type of site | Social network service |
| Registration | Required |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | Blogster Team |
| Launched | November 24, 2005 |
| Alexa rank | 9,466 (January 2012[update])[1] |
| Current status | active |
Blogster is a blogging community that features specific-interest blogs. Blogster maintains an online community of users who publish content, images, video and more. Blogster members can network and collaborate by creating a blog, building a personalized profile, creating friend lists, commenting on articles and interacting in an online community. Blogster is positioned on simplicity, and easy-to-use settings options. Compared to other blogging services, Blogster differentiates itself as having spam-free blogs.
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The purchase of the domain name "www.blogster.com" was first announced by a pair of entrepreneurs named Tony Colan and Ed Harrison of Cleveland, Ohio, which was priced at US$100,000. It was considered as the top domain name acquisition in 2005. Their programming team rewrote the entire software for the site before going live that same year.[2] The site was then put up on sale in January 2007 through SitePoint before being purchased by a group called "Blogster Team." At that time, the site already has over 30,000 members.[3] As of August 2009, the site has over 50,000 users.
A unique characteristic on Blogster features a combination of blogging and social networking. Users create both their profiles and their blogs. They can also add other users with the same interests as friends, chat with other users, join groups, upload photos on a gallery, and even incorporate their blog RSS feed, Twitter and Flickr accounts.[4]
Over time, Blogster has added several new features to its website like the Wall, a space on every user's profile page that allows members to post messages for the user to see,[5] and Lifestream, which displays an aggregated chronological view of the users' activities within the site.[6]
Blogster Groups was introduced on March 30, 2009, which aims to allow members to create professional or social groups. Members can network with same interests, share information, photos, and connections.[7] Meanwhile, Blogster Photo System was introduced on June 26, 2009. Privacy settings can be set for individual photos, limiting the groups of members that can see a photo. For example, the privacy of an photo can be set so that only the user's friends can see the photo, while the privacy of another photo can be set so that all Blogster users can see it. Another feature of the Photos applications is the ability to embed the photo to a blog post and tag the photo.[8] On October 29, 2009, Blogster groups were able to customize their blog with their own photos, design, and colors.[9] Blogster launched its own Chat function on October 12, 2009, allowing users to chat their friends about different topics.[10] On November 10, 2009 Blogster launched a new footer to allow members to chat one to one easily.[11]
On October 30, 2009, Blogster introduced a new mail system. The inbox allows members to exchange and archive messages. Members may block contacts with whom they do not want to interact. Members may also send virtual gifts to their friends.
Blogster offers three privacy levels: public, members only and friends only. Public profiles can be seen by any user. Members only can be seen only by all Blogster members. Friend profiles are seen only by their friends. Blogster also allows a user to set their photos, wall, web feed, lifestream, inbox and comments to private.
Blogster developed a flagging system that allow users to easily report content that violate Blogster’s terms of use (such as sites that contain Threats of Physical Harm or Underage Nudity). Flagged content are reviewed by Blogster’s employees and shut down as appropriate. The flagging system was launched on November, 2008. A "Report Inappropriate Content" link is also found at the bottom of every page.