Bebo

File:Bebo090606.png

Bebo front page

Bebo is a social networking website created to enable friends to stay in contact. It has developed into an online community where friends can post pictures, write blogs and send messages to one another, and is similar in format to MySpace. The site has been increasing in popularity, with over 22,000,000 registered members (although a much smaller number of members are regularly active on the website). Bebo is the 340th most popular English language website according to Alexa Internet, and the second most popular in Ireland according to the Irish Independent (17th in the UK). In the US, Bebo was the fastest growing social networking site in June 2006 according to Hitwise, Inc.

Features

Homepage Features

Once a user has registered an account, their "Bebo Homepage" is created. The contents of this page are edited by the user, using online forms. The top of a user's homepage contains profile information about the user, which would typically include their name, a picture, a paragraph about them, and some profile information under a few different headings. Default headings are Music, Films, Sports, Scared Of and Happiest When. Many users use their own headings to reflect their own interests, or to include quips, quotes or jibes.

The typical homepage contains much more than just the above information. Every homepage must include the following sections:

• Whiteboard; in which other Bebo users who view the page can draw pictures (which become visible to everyone viewing the homepage) using a simple online system called ffArt (standing for 'free form Art'). Whiteboards can now be reviewed by recipients before they go live on their pages. Users can either Accept, Reject or Decide Later what to do with a received comment. This option is accessible through the "My Account" link.

• Comments; where viewers of the page can leave text comments. Towards the end of August 2006, users were given the ability to reply easily to other users' comments on their homepage through a new "Reply" link. This lets you decide whether to reply publicly (by leaving a comment on their homepage) or privately (by sending a reply by the Mail system) and also presents the text of the original comment for reference. After criticism about malicious comments, Bebo have added an option to allow users to review new comments before they are posted on their page. This works exactly like the Whiteboard system, discussed above.

• Friends; which shows, in a four by four panel, the profiles pictures of sixteen of the page-holder's friends. Clicking on any of these pictures brings you to that person's homepage. All of a user's friends are publicly visible: above the four by four panel, there is a link to a complete listing of the user's friends. The selection of the "top sixteen" friends had previously been automated, but now each user can select which sixteen friends they wish to appear directly on their homepage.

A homepage would also usually include the following:

• Quizzes; where viewers of the page can answer quizzes composed by the page-holder. A typical quiz might be titled "How well do you know <<Page-holder's name>>?" Upon completion of the quiz, the percentage scores and answers of all previous quiz-takers become visible. Each taker of the quiz may also leave a comment which will be displayed next to the score they attained.

• BeboTV; this holds multimedia content which plays when the page is viewed. This can either be video content uploaded directly to Bebo's servers (using client-side VideoEgg publishing software), or a link to an externally hosted Flash file. The video-uploading functionality was introduced in early April 2006. As of June 2006, Bebo is only allowing users to use YouTube's flash movies alongside the VideoEgg system, however this is expected to change in the near future. Previously, this feature was known as Flashbox and any Flash file could be linked to. "Channels" have also been added to the Bebo TV system, including Music, Sports, Comedy, Art and many others. Each channel has its own chart as well as the universal chart. It also received a place in the uppermost navigation bar, alongside Mail, Bands, College etc.

• Polls; where the page-viewer can vote in a poll or polls created by the page-holder. Each poll has between two and five options; only one can be selected. The page which displays the current standings of a poll also shows comments left by those who took the poll.

• Photos; this section shows a number of titled photo albums, each one containing pictures uploaded by the holder of the page. The viewer can leave comments on each picture viewed. One of the pictures is selected by the page-holder as their profile picture. This picture is displayed prominently at the top of their homepage, next to any comments they make, and is used wherever a link to their homepage is required (such as in the "Friends" section of another user). Users are now required to select a Top 21 photo albums to appear on their Homepage, with all albums visible on a seperate Photos page. Users also now have the ability to sort the order of photos within their albums.

• Blog; this is where the holder of the page can publish text. Each post comes under its own heading, and the reader of the blog can comment on a particular post (unless this is specifically disabled by the page-holder). This section is often used to display jokes, humorous lists, or other types of on-line humour. It is also commonly used for announcements, musings, or as a public journal.

• Bands and Playlists; these sections are related to the "Bebo Bands" section of the site (as discussed below). The Bands section is where a user's favourite bands are listed. Users add their favourite bands similarly to how they add new friends on the site. The Playlists section lists a user's playlist of favourite songs from Bebo Bands pages. Users can also copy each others' playlists onto their own pages and effectively share them.

Bebo Bands Features

On 11 July 2006, Bebo Bands launched. On this section of the site, bands or solo artists are able to create a homepage showcasing their music. Along with undiscovered talents, it has a section called "New Music Only on Bebo" linking to official artist pages including Paris Hilton, Matt Willis, Orson, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue and more.

• Band Members; Like a regular homepage's friends list, this shows the band members in four by four panels.

• Groupies: This is like the Band Members section, only it shows the group's fans in four by four panels. The artist may also be able to organise these into a Top 16.

• Tour Dates: This section is simply a space where the artist can list all upcoming concerts, with details of location, time and date included.

• Songs: Here the artist can list a number of their songs which are available to be added to other users' "Playlists". One can also choose the "Play All" link which opens a new window with a Bebo MP3 Player.

• Albums; This is like the "Songs" section, only the songs are grouped into their respective albums. The cover of the Album can be shown as a thumbnail above the album name and number of tracks.

• Bebo Bands Homepage's also include a Photos, Comments and Bebo TV section, which work exactly as they do on regular Homepages.

Other Features

• Schools and Colleges: Users from Ireland, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and Canada can connect with other users from their school or college by joining their past/current educational institutions from a comprehensive list provided on the Bebo site. Once joined to a school or college, they can see that institution's page, which lists all its joined-up members, any Bebo clubs which have been formed for that institution, a "Wall" of small images drawn by school members, announcements and comments made by other members, a "School Radio" facility through which audio is played after being uploaded, and a photos section.

• Skins: Skins were launched on Bebo in early 2006 as a response to users' requests to be able to further customise their homepages. At first Bebo made available only skins that they themselves had made, but soon users were invited to make their own. A user can upload a number of images of specified size to make a custom skin for their own homepage. They can also submit their skin to become featured, that is, once it has been deemed to be of a sufficient quality, it is made public, so that any Bebo member can use it on their homepage. Many new featured skins are added every week.
• Skype Integration: From February 32006 Bebo has integrated (on Windows only) with Skype, a popular VOIP service. This enables users to contact each other using Skype directly from their profiles, and marks a big move forward in online communication integration.

• Gold Members: On April 12006 users were invited to apply for Gold Membership, which involved users taking three pictures of themselves with the word "Bebo" scrawled across their forehead. This was originally an April Fool's Joke but due to a high volume of entries, users were indeed awarded Gold Member status, and were given a medallion for their homepages. The scheme finished in mid-June 2006 when Bebo stopped accepting applications.

Awards

Bebo won the People's Choice award in the Social Networking category of the 2006 Webby Awards.

Criticisms

Bebo was initially designed strictly as a contact- and photo-sharing site, and as such users' personal information such as phone number and home address was visible to all of their "friends." After an experiment was carried out by Adams Rants to see how many users would blindly accept friend requests from strangers (and thus divulge potentially dangerous details), Bebo de-emphasised the contact sharing feature and changed it so users must "opt-in" to having their contact details shared.

Cyber-bullying can be a problem on social-networking sites such as Bebo, with some teenagers taking advantage of the anonymity of the Internet to abuse and ridicule their peers. Sock puppet accounts are often created solely for the purpose of bullying. Bebo offers a guide for parents about the problem of cyber-bullying on their home page.

Bebo has been accused of taking up so much of students' time that campus computers in various colleges and universities are blocked up by students accessing it, at the expense of students wishing to do genuine coursework. As a result, several Irish universities (including NUI Galway and NUI Maynooth) and schools have blocked the site.

Concerns have been raised about potential risks to children from paedophiles accessing personal information contained in profiles. In Ireland, for example, the Sunday Tribune newspaper carried out an experiment whereby a reporter posing as a 13 year old girl set up an account, and proceeded to gather personal information and photos of other teenage girls.

In March 2006 Norfolk County Council is believed to have become the first LEA in the United Kingdom to order all schools in its authority to block the website from school computers due to it being used for "unsavoury activities".[1]

In various parts of the site, the user may experience errors in pages, such as photo albums not showing up, and links to content on a person's profile displaying the corresponding content from a different user's profile (often that of the previous profile viewed). This is a long-standing problem, but efforts are being made to fix it.

Many have criticised the number of Bebo invitational e-mails sent from the site, which have caused many people's e-mail inboxes to become clogged. However it would now seem that the number of invites being sent is in decline.

Internal spam is another problem. Some Bebo users send many un-solicited chain e-mails, wasting bandwidth, inbox space and time. These chain e-mails occasionally purport to be from the developers of Bebo, claiming that the recipient's account will be deleted or in some way curtailed unless the chain e-mail is forwared to every one of their friends. These claims are in all cases false. Bebo has been forced to place a notice in the mail section of the site, reminding users that Bebo will never use chain e-mails as a means of communication. Other popular chain e-mail types are humorous stories, personality quizzes to be filled out, "petitions" for various causes, and e-mails which must be forwarded to avoid bad luck, or some other such superstition.

Bebo has also received harsh criticism for cancelling people's profiles for no apparant reason. If more than 10 complaints are made to one user, their account is cancelled, even if they have done nothing to the people who have made the "complaints". This means anyone can be shut out of Bebo just because false complaints have been made against them.

See also

• List of social networking websites

References

• UCC Express, March 15, 2006

External links

• Bebo website
• Skype website
• VideoEgg website