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BuddyPress – build a social network on top of WordPress MU (Multi-User) blog installation

Apr 30, 2009 by Mircea GoiacloseAuthor: Mircea Goia Name: Mircea Goia
Email: mtb@mytestbox.com
Site: http://www.mytestbox.com
About: Mircea Goia was born in Romania and imigrated to USA in 2005. He lives in Phoenix, AZ and works as web developer. Aside, he works also on several entrepreneurial Web projects. He shows a keen interest in commercial Web development such as social networks, viral marketing, online video. His artistic hobby is filmmaking with special interest in directing.See Authors Posts (76) MyTestBox News

After months and months in development under Automattic umbrella (yes, the WordPress guys) Buddypress is, finally and officially, at version 1.0.

What is Buddypress?

It’s a set of plugins and themes (each adding a distinct new feature) developed originally by Andy Peatling allowing a WordPress MU (Multi-User)  blog installation to become a social network also.
All of the plugins could be used to create a complete social network from scratch, or you could use specific plugins to add desirable features to your existing blog network.

Later on, Buddypress was acquired by Automattic, the makers of Wodpress MU and WordPress blog software, and the author joined to their team.

The features Budypress has are:
* Extended Profiles
* Private Messaging
* Friends
* Groups
* The Wire
* Activity Streams
* Blog Tracking
* Forums

Some upcoming features in 2009 are:
* Status Updates (Mid 2009)
* Photo Albums (Late 2009)

To have Budypress running on your server you need to have the following:
* A working installation of WordPress MU, version 2.7.1 or greater
* PHP version 4.3 or greater
* MySQL 4.0 or greater
* The mod_rewrite Apache module enabled

Budypress might not be a contender now for Social Engine, DZOIC Handshakes, WebNetwork, Boonex Dolphin, Alstrasoft E-friends, Elgg, PHPfox, PHPizabi but in the near future it could be as new features will be added and, especially, because it can reach a good chunk of the market thanks to many WordPress MU installations which are already there.

Download Buddypress here  and don’t forget the installation instructions!

Tags: auttomatic, blog software, buddypress, dolphin, dzoic, e-friends, elgg, multi-user, mysql, php, phpfox, phpizabi, plugins, social engine, social network, webnetwork, wordpress, wordpress MU

DZOIC releases the version 3.6 of their white label social networking software Handshakes

Oct 27, 2008 by Mircea GoiacloseAuthor: Mircea Goia Name: Mircea Goia
Email: mtb@mytestbox.com
Site: http://www.mytestbox.com
About: Mircea Goia was born in Romania and imigrated to USA in 2005. He lives in Phoenix, AZ and works as web developer. Aside, he works also on several entrepreneurial Web projects. He shows a keen interest in commercial Web development such as social networks, viral marketing, online video. His artistic hobby is filmmaking with special interest in directing.See Authors Posts (76) MyTestBox News

DZOIC, the company behind the white label social networking software Handshakes, just released the version 3.6 of it.In this new version the videos module has been completely replaced with the new one, which is now based on our their video sharing software “ClipHouse“.

New features:

* Contact Us – simple contact us form, doesn’t require registration
* Statistics Module (admin console)
* Address Book import scripts fixed for all supported systems (Yahoo!, GMail, AOL, Hotmail, MSN Messenger, MySpace)

Other new features:

* Video Grabber Plugin (allows your Handshakes users easily import / embed videos from YouTube by entering the video URL.)
* Load Balance Plugin (allows you to use multiple servers for video convertion and storage. Includes script installation, single server setup and plugin integration. This is a good feature for large websites built with this social networking software.)
* Tags (we already know what that means)
* Social Bookmarking (and we know this too)

About Handshakes
DZOIC Handshakes Professional is one of the best social networking software outhere. If you dream to start your own profitable social networking website like MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and others, look no further. DZOIC Handshakes is your complete solution.

Of course, it comes with a price and that’s $299/license (1 year free updates). For aditional modules and plugins you will have to pay separately (see their prices page).

This social networking software is a white label software which means you can download it and customize it as you wish. It is written in the open source PHP/ MySQL and after you will pay you will get 100% source code (no encryption).

Checkout their demo of the user interface  and admin interface. If you have pre-sale questions or want to find out more from their users you can check their online forum.

If you are a user of this software tell us your opinion in the comments.

Tags: cliphouse, dzoic, handshakes, mysql, open-source, php, social networking software, video sharing, white label