PeopleJar – a New Concept of Social Connecting

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Ann Smarty

10/29/08

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While social networking is nothing new today: starting from the early age of Myspace people establish and maintain connections online. A new people search service PeopleJar offers a new (somewhat innovative) focus on social connecting versus social networking.

The whole site is built with “Search and Be Found” concept in mind: from the robust search feature to networks and profile creation.

Search feature

PeopleJar offers a highly-customizable search platform:

• you can search people by area of expertise or interests and /or location;
• you can use advanced search (specifying age, gender, network membership, etc);
• you can create your own search by adding search parameters into the “search cart” and even saving your search for the system to let you know once new people meeting your requirements join the community;
• you can even customize the matching rate (e.g. with search by location you can set whether you want the “exact match”, broad match or XX miles away).

Networks

With the searching and connecting concepts in mind, PeopleJar networks are not primarily about networking. While they do provide members with some socializing features (e.g. wall discussions), the main focus is again on increasing the members’ chances to be found: the more networks you join, the more attributes you accumulate and the more search combinations you end up ranking for.

There is only one network per niche. A network can be located either by category (e.g. Sports, Services, etc) or by attributes it is associated with (e.g. “green” is associated with “Immigration” and “Environment” networks). Attributes are user-generated and moderated (to keep the service relevant).

Connecting

There are multiple levels of connections:

• you can locate on a local and global level;
• you can connect based on your interests or area(s) of expertise;
• you can connect for recreational, social and professional purposes, etc.