Teenagers have online cliques at MySpace; students star in the Facebook; LinkedIn is an Internet networking stage for professionals; and dogs and their human counterparts run with the pack at Dogster.
San Francisco-based Dogster is a flourishing social networking Web site for canines, referred to as "animal companions" instead of "pets" in the politically correct City by the Bay.
Among the furry friends featured on the Web site is Annie, an 11-month-old female beagle from Tennessee.
Annie loves carrots, belongs to a group called "Beagles R Us" and is humbly described as "nice with large ears."
Her roster of friends includes Tank, a Shar Pei in South Africa; a New York City golden retriever named Copper; and Beanie, a poodle living in Malaysia.
Annie has a blog, an online journal, to share her thoughts and adventures with friends.
She is among more than 290,000 dogs worldwide with Internet personas portrayed in profile pages on Dogster.
Felines have a kindred Web site, Catster, which is purring along with more than 121,000 members.
Dogster founder Ted Rheingold credits the birth of the pooch-oriented Web site in January of 2004 to a simple observation.
"I realized there was nowhere to make a Web page for your dog, or more importantly, there was nowhere to share photos and stories about your dog," Rheingold said.
"You could see photos online, but you couldn't see their names -- who's this dog, what's this dog's favorite treat, or what's this dog's character."
Dogster and Catster communities have grown to more than 500,000 members, and quickly extended beyond US borders. Countries with the most active members are Australia, Britain, Canada, the Philippines, Singapore and the US.
And a few other facts give a picture of its success. Last month alone, the company made more than US$250,000, had a healthy 22 million page views for both sites, and now has 15 full-time and three part-time employees, according to a Dogster spokesman John Vars.
Labradors, Chihuahuas, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds are top dogs in Dogster demographics.
Along with sharing a beloved creature with the world via the Internet, Dogster and Catster members share tips about pet care or animal behavior.
"If you have any questions about your dog changing with age, or getting another dog or cat, all these people are online at the same time so can give you advice," Rheingold said.
The Web sites grew from places for exchanging pictures and anecdotes to including features such as private message boards and lists of pets seeking homes in places around the world.
Catster and Dogster members also use the Web sites to form breed-specific clubs in cities.
A recently added feature lets people find local pet services such as veterinarians, groomers, trainers or dog walkers and learn how they are rated by peers.
"If you do a search right now for a veterinarian you'll find names, addresses, how far they are from you, and read reviews of what other dogs' owners think of this vet or groomer," Rheingold said.
While the sites are thriving on user-generated content in a way similar to other Web 2.0 social networking Web sites, Dogster and Catster are being built to outlast trends, according to their founder.
"We want to be here for a long time," Rheingold said. "Dogster is not just a business, and we don't want just to sell it or make a lot of money. We pick what's best for our users, what they want us to do, no matter if it's the latest sexy technology or not."
Rheingold has also resisted entreaties from animal lovers to become an online version of a Biblical Noah, launching Web sites for species galore.
"Everyday, we get requests for horses, birds, fish, farm animals, lizards, or `Please, make this, because I want to show off my spider,'" Rheingold said. "We don't have immediate plans to launch other pet sites, but we'd like to. We really want to make sure we get Dogster and Catster right. It may not take long. But we'll probably stick to mainstream animals."
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS