Social networks

To me social network sites seem a bit like eBay in that the world only really needs one of them.  And yet we have a few springing up...  It reminds me of the early days of online auctions, where Yahoo and others tried to compete with eBay but consumers realized that there really wasn't any reason to list with anyone but eBay.


Orkut is unique in that instead of trying to get everyone to join at launch, they're actually requiring that you get an invitation from someone.  That's cool because it means when you join, you'll already have a network of people around you based on who invited you.


Strangely enough, you can buy an invitation to Orkut on eBay. I wonder if that places you in the bad part of the social network.  I haven't got my invitation yet, but I think I'd rather wait than buy it..