New to social networking - Lymabean
As if there aren't enough of these around already - but it's always fascinating to see where the new developments are. Lymabean has not yet been released, but you can watch an overview video of what appears to be a very pretty Flash-based interface.
The site has most of the features found on social networks today - profiles, friends, photos, videos, etc. and instant messaging is also built in and integrated with most of the features (drag and drop a photo into IM, for example). It's interesting to see the differences in usability with a Flash interface - although it's going to be a hard road for any new entrant of challenge the dominance of Facebook or Bebo and others that are already dominant in the market. Techcrunch observes that previous attempts to introduce a Flash based environment have not been successful.
Whether it does take off or not, the video clip is a great way of sharing understanding about what these social networking sites are all about and how they might be used - especially for anyone who doesn't already have an account :-)