Social Networking Watch: News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry

Social Networks Spring Up For The Religious

KEYE TV -- Mar 31 -- About two-thirds of Americans use the Internet for some type of religion or religious experience. GodTube now averages about one-and-a-half million viewers a month and there are plenty of other sites for Christians: HisHolySpace.com and MyPraize.com. For the Jewish faith, there's JewTube and Shmooze.com and Muslims can visit IslamicTube.com or naseeb.com. FULL ARTICLE @ KEYE TV

Jewish Singles Discovering Social Networking Sites for Dating

ISRAEL NEWS AGENCY -- Aug 17 -- The online Jewish dating scene is changing. JDate and its wannabes (JMatch, Jkarma, Jewish Café, Blind-Date, Frumster, 2become1, and DosiDate), with their high costs, low success rates, and false ads, are becoming a thing of the past. Replacing them are social networking sites – like World of Jewish, Shmooze, and Koolanoo – that allow single Jewish people to connect on multiple levels for free. FULL ARTICLE @ ISRAEL NEWS AGENCY

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

Xianz - Where Religion And Social Networking Meet

NEW YORK TIMES -- June 30 -- A number of religious themed social networking sites are beginning to emerge as competitors to MySpace to promote their religions and to create an environment that is religious friendly. Sites like HisHolySpace.com, Xianz.com, MyPraize.com all control content to provide an atmosphere, which is "family friendly for the Christian demographic," outlawing sexually explicit words or derogatory language. Other religions have gone after this niche market as well including MuslimSpace.com and Shmooze.com, a Jewish site. FULL ARTICLE @ C NET NEWS

Churches Join the Social Atmosphere

BIZ REPORT -- May 23 -- MyChurch has 5,300 churches signed up and receives 3 million pageviews and 150,000 uniques per month. Xianz is a social network for Christian teens with 35,000 registered members. Shmooze, a Jewish social network reports 200,000 members and Naseeb, for Muslims, reports 300,000 members. Most have rules and regulations for language, many members share problems and ask for support or prayers from other members and ministers may post sermon information and many churches actually release digital bulletins from the social networks. FULL ARTICLE @ BIZ REPORT