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Bebo, a backronym for “Blog early, blog often”, is an online social media network. The site was founded in January 2005 by husband and wife team Michael and Xochi Birch. It was given a major relaunch in July 2005. Bebo can be used in many countries around the world including Ireland, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. Bebo have recently launched a Polish version of the site which uses a different user database. There are also plans for French and German versions among others. Bebo was acquired by AOL on March 13, 2008 for $850m (£417m)..

Profiles

In 2007 Bebo launched an international photosharing website called thephotodiary - http://www.thephotodiary.com/ The Swedish version of the site called bilddagboken has already gained nearly six million users.

Similar to other social networking sites, each profile must include two specific modules, a comment section where other users can leave a message, and a list of the user's friends. Users can select from many more modules to add. By default, when an account is created the profile is private, which limits access to friends specifically added. The user may select the "Public Profile" option so as the profile will still be visible to any other members of a school they may have joined. Profiles may be personalized by using a 'Bebo skin', a design template that is the background of the user's profile.

Profiles may include quizzes which offer multiple choice questions, polls for their friends to vote in and comment on, photo albums which allows the user to upload an unlimited number of pictures, blogs with a comments section , a list of bands of which the profile-holder is a fan, a list of groups that the user is a member of. A 'Video Box' may be added, either hotlinked, uploaded directly to Bebo's servers via VideoEgg or copied from a Bebo Media Content Provider's page.

Members can view the recent changes friends have made to their homepage from the 'Home' menu. These changes can include uploaded photos, updated flashboxes and newly added videos and friends. A map feature enables members to see who has being viewing their profile. However, the viewer must be logged in while viewing and have their profile set to public in the map section, in order for this to be possible.

Profile Views

Bebo has two separate viewings of profiles. There is "Public" and "Private". Public Profiles lets all users see and send things to your profile and is not recommended to users of bebo. Private Profiles only let viewers that the user select to see their profile. It is very safe and protected. This is the profile recommended for users of bebo.

Bebo Music

On 11 July 2006, "Bebo Music" was launched (originally as Bebo bands). This allows bands or solo artists to create a profile showcasing their music. The band profiles include a band member list which is similar to the friends list on a normal profile, a list of fans (fans who have added the band as though it were a friend), an area for tour dates, a blog, and a list of songs which have been uploaded for playing through Bebo's media player, or which may be added to other user's playlists. These songs can be grouped by the band into albums, along with cover-art. All band members can edit the content of the band profile.

Bebo Authors

On 22 February 2007, Bebo Authors, also known as Bebo Books, was launched. On this section of the site, authors can upload chapters of their books and also get them reviewed with a certain module. Currently there is no module to display books on a profile page like there is for Bands and Groups. This can give users the option of keeping up with the new books on the shelves and also gives children or teenagers the option of talking about or even to their heros or favourite authors.

Bebo Groups

On 10 July 2007, the 'Group' module was added to pages. This enabled people to view groups which were previously joined to a school and were also viewable only to school members. Bebo also gave an option to convert existing Authors or Bands to Groups. This conversion takes up to 24 hours as the profile must be manually changed by a member of Bebo staff. Group pages give users an option to join things they find interesting. These groups can often be educational as well as associated with pop culture.

Bebo Mobile

On 13 October 2007, Bebo launched a mobile service which allows users to receive text alerts and update their profile via their mobile phone. This is currently available to Orange UK and O2 Ireland customers. The service consists of a mobile site, text alerts for new comments and photo only uploads via mms.On 19 March 2008, Bebo launched a new mobile site which can be accessed by any mobile phone users on any network and not just Orange UK and O2 Ireland customers. This can be used by pointing your browser at m.bebo.com.

Integration with instant messaging

Bebo currently allow users to add their AIM, Skype and Windows Live Messenger usernames to their profile. The Skype and Windows Live Messenger links offer links to quickly chat or add that user in that program. The Windows Live Messenger links show up only in Internet Explorer by default as it uses the 'msnim' protocol. However, it is possible to view (and use) the Windows Live Messenger links in another web browser such as Firefox or Opera by masking the user agent as Internet Explorer and using a tool called the WLM Protocol Handler to handle the msnim protocol. Using the AIM links to contact someone opens up a Web AIM client. Bebo also offers a co-branded AIM downloadable client.

Bebo Open Media Platform

Announced on the 13 November 2007 Bebo Open Media Platform is a platform for companies to distribute content to the Bebo community. It is a business model where content providers can bring their own media player to Bebo, and are able to monetize the advertising within that. Each content provider has a specialised page designed for video which showcases any Flash video content at the top of the profile. Many networks such as CBS, Sky, Ustream.tv, BBC, and Last.fm for example are currently signed up for the service. i rok

Open Application Platform

On 1 November 2007 Bebo announced that it will be joining OpenSocial, a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web. In addition to this Bebo announced plans for a Developers Platform and stated they were to make a further platform announcement on November 13, 2007. This platform announcement however, turned out to be about the Bebo 'Open Media Platform' and not a true API. Bebo's Developers Platform was launched in early December 2007 with just over 50 applications.

On 15 January 2008 Widgetbox released the App Accelerator for Bebo, which allows developers to create a Bebo application based on their pre-existing Widgetbox-registered widget. These widgets are registered as their own Bebo application and are provided functionality mirroring Widgetbox's App Accelerator for Facebook.

Bebo also announced Google's Open Social platform will also be implemented in early 2008, making Bebo the first website to support both Open Social and the Facebook Platform.

Alleged Bridgend suicides link

References

1. How to make 80 million friends and influence people at http://observer.guardian.co.uk (accessed October 12, 2007)
2. "About Michael Birch". About Bebo. Bebo. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
3. Polish version
4. French version
5. German version
6. "AOL acquires Bebo social network". Retrieved 2008-03-13.
7. "AOL to 'supercharge' Bebo revenues". AOL to ‘supercharge’ Bebo revenues. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
8. Lunn, Shawn (2006-07-27). "Bebo strikes the right chord with the launch of Bebo Bands". IrishDev News. Irish Developer Network. Retrieved 2007-06-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. Authors
10. Group Surf
11. Bebo in the News
12. Mobile site is now live at m.bebo.com

External links

• Bebo.com
• Bebo Mobile (to access via your mobile phone or PDA)

• Online social networking