Multiply for Simplicity Sake
by
on March 21, 2007,
The Web 2.0 community Multiply.com just passed 4 million registered users recently, and the digital content sharing site/network claims that their usage increased over 500% in the last year. The site claims over 13 million page views per month since the beginning of 2007, much of this is attributed to "relationship relevancy".
Multiply relies on a little different structure in order to provide users with community quality. Communications at Multiply are contained to established user networks of real life connections or direct contacts. Relationship rankings are applied to quantify, organize and prioritize shared content via an indexing system similar to Google's page rank.
I think Multiply is actually a kind of online scrapbook or information sharing platform for close networks. Obviously a large number of people have been interested in this platform. As you can see from the screenshot below, Multiply has a lot to offer. My little site, which I created just for you guys; has about me stuff, photos, my own little blog, music, video, reviews, links, groups and contacts.
Potentially, Multiply could be the all in one site for people with diverse interests and networks. I won't speculate about just what a user could do here, but using Multiply as either a close networking tool or a larger venue for consolidated visibility would seem likely. A press release via PRWEB yesterday quoted Peter Pezaris, CEO of Multiply describing the accelerated success of his company:
"Multiply is growing rapidly because it allows people to document and share the most important aspects of their lives with the most important people in their lives - friends and family. It's like keeping an online scrapbook and diary, only now the people they know and love can write in it as well."
I really like sites that tend to live up to their press releases. I like the blog addition function for users to be able to access and cross post their Xanga, Blogger, Live Journal, TypePad and other blogs. A new feature of the community is the Multiply Badge which allows users to take their information to other web sites. The badges are sort of like name tags at a big party or conference so that everyone everywhere will know who you are. I can only find good things about Multiply, the signup is simple, the UI is friendly, the services are varied and useful and the site has great potential for a Web 2.0 community however large the individual users want to make it. The one questionable number is the actual size of this community. Such things are kind of subjective and I do not dispute the registered users, but I am having issues with everyone's numbers, not just Multiply's. Who are these users and which ones cohabit number indications at other sites?
