Sgrouples, Inc. (www.sgrouples.com) launched into public beta today offering a private alternative to the social network, and a robust suite of services it hopes will make it an all-in-one tool for weary Web users.
Sgrouples’ free custom dashboard lets users create private personal groups, import and manage their social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and provides personal cloud storage.
“We believe social network fatigue, particularly over privacy, and demand for personal clouds, will be the key driving forces in the social space over the next one to two years,” said Mark Weinstein, founder and CEO of Sgrouples, and an early pioneer of Web 2.0 services. “As the Facebook IPO is this week, we feel that now is the perfect time to launch the all-in-one Sgrouples service, which offers an antidote to large social platforms like Facebook by building true privacy into the user model – no tracking, no profiling and no sharing of personal information.”
Weinstein is a 15-year veteran of social media, before it even existed as an Internet category. He was the founder of SuperGroups, which in 1999 was hailed by CNN, Time, Bloomberg News and Dow Jones, among others, and was a popular precursor to today’s social networks and community sites.
“I’ve followed Sgrouples for nearly a year,” said Colin Sebastian, director, equity research, for RW Baird. “Their leadership and development team have incredible vision and are making terrific progress. Moreover, the company is an early mover in addressing growing consumer concerns about social platform overwhelm and user privacy.”
“Privacy by design” is a key selling point for Sgrouples.com, which offers an unprecedented level of protection in its user bill of rights (https://sgrouples.com/privacy), patent-pending permission tool and transparent privacy policy. As Weinstein points out, Sgrouples.com does not track, monitor or profile its users, and no personal information will ever be gathered or shared with third party companies.
“It’s our belief that users are growing tired of large platforms like Facebook, and are ready to migrate towards smaller, more exclusive communities that can offer real privacy and trust in the social experience,” said Weinstein. “We want to re-engineer the social experience by allowing users to connect in a closer way with people they know, in a private platform they trust. Our goal is to create one private place, with a robust suite of services, where people can come to organize all of their real life communities.”
Sgrouples.com is a free all-in-one suite of services that combines many popular features on the Web in one easy-to-use place. From a single user-friendly dashboard, members can start their own private groups; manage their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts; and enjoy a personal cloud to save and share photos, documents and important files.
Key features of the site include:
- Privacy bill of rights – no tracking, no profiling, no sharing of
personal information - Patent-pending permission tool (GroupAuthTM) lets users
control their privacy settings
- Private custom user groups
- Cloud storage with My CloudTM (4GB free at sign-up, up to
10GB free with sharing) - Social network aggregator in one easy-to-use dashboard
- Organize and share favorite links with Check It OutTM
- Event calendars users can create and share with others
- Upcoming features: photo printing, apps and games, and Sgrouples Mobile
