Slowly seeping into the sights of the public, having arrived without a bang or some corny and ultimately penny pinching marketing technique, the newest edition to the social networking world is ‘Ello’. Having coincidentally just heard about this site from Monique Myintoo only yesterday, I’m quietly feeling pretty hip and trendy right now. Originally built as a private social network, Ello has attracted so many people over time  that a public version of Ello has been created for everyone to use. Currently still pretty ‘underground’, as I read through this article about a social site that is uniquely yet very successfully running off ‘invite only beta’ and Ello is taking a refreshing new spin on what we have grown so accustomed to as social networking. Currently, this is the fact that Ello does not allow for advertising and therefor is detached from the claws of pervasive online surveillance and tracking that is enabled through advertisements. This alone appeals to me, as nothing is now more annoying than being forced to watch an add on youtube if you wish to continue on to your video, or trying to read something online and an annoying add pops up on your screen and even when clicking on the decline button, does it direct you to their site anyway!

I am very intrigued to watch the success rate of the young ‘Ello’ as current social networking dominators, Facebook and Twitter will do anything to compete with and overpower any website that poses a threat. However, ‘Social networks are like languages — they are only worthwhile when they are broadly adopted’ and without the help of advertising, whereby a social network indirectly sells their users to another company, Ello must still be able to make money somewhere, somehow if it is to continue its growth.

So spread the word to friends and family and lets see what happens!