Wednesday, 1 October 2014
A new social network called Ello, which is being described as anti-Facebook due to its strong position on privacy and advertising is fast gaining and audience online.
"Ello doesn't sell ads. Nor do we sell data about you to third parties. We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate, but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life. You are not a product," said the company, as reported by AFP News.
Ello's policy rests on the idea that selling personal data, "is both creepy and unethical", and on most sites, "under the guise of offering a 'free' service, users pay a high price in intrusive advertising and lack of privacy."
Behind the scenes
The network based in Vermont, US, was launched by a group of artists and programmers.
The leading man behind the launch was Paul Budnitz who is known for designing bicycles and robots. According to Budnitz, the concept behind Ello was to design a, "simple, beautiful and ad-free" network.
The creators are designers and artists. Its CEO, Paul Budnitz, makes toys.
There's no big marketing push and no obvious tie to Silicon Valley.
These are not the typical building blocks of a hot new social network. Yet, people are joining it in droves. In the past few
days, Ello has seen an incredible influx of new users. Its network more
than quadrupled in size and there's no sign of it slowing down. As I'm
writing this, I'm told that Ello has gained nearly 20,000 new users in
just the past hour. A quick scan of my Twitter and Facebook feeds
reveals a whole slew of my friends have joined the service, which is a
remarkable achievement considering Ello is still at the invite-only
stage. Only existing users can invite those looking to sign up, which
means it's mostly spreading by word-of-mouth. Ello had to stop taking invites because its servers were slammed. People are even selling Ello invitations on eBay for $100 a pop.
Additionally, because Budnitz and his team have strong design and art backgrounds, they wanted the site to look good. "I wanted something really clean and very different," he said. "I also wanted to deal with clutter." Berger added that Ello was also intended as a shared art space, and that's apparent almost immediately. It has a minimalist interface, with plenty of white space and a wide layout that really lets art and photos take center stage. And for all you GIF-lovers out there, Ello supports those animated images out of the gate.
