Ive just been introduced to a new social networking website by a colleague of mine who is looking closely at it for investment...

No its not Facebook, MySpace, or even Twitter.....!

Its called www. dualearth. com which uses Google Maps as a platform for Social Networking, Photo and Video Sharing, blogs etc.

Looks pretty cool to me and a bit different from the usual MySpace and Facebook as you can find out about the world as well as people. You can navigate users profiles straight from the google map (awesome!) - people can also customise their own map ie backpackers can show off where they have been.

Not sure if its part of Google, or whether the site has permission to use the maps. Either way its one of the most useful ways of using google maps ive seen around for a while.

Not registered yet but my friend reckons its going to be this years next big internet thing! Looks to me like it needs developing a bit.....definitly worth a look though

If my pal in New York is interested in investing, id say it might be a winner!!

Check it out.... www. dualearth. com

Mikey.

Seems pretty hokey to me at this point, and in terms of Google mash ups, I see nothing spectacular, in fact it is pretty much the most basic way of using the Google free API - put in an address put up a pin... perhaps you just haven't seen many Google mash ups?

With only a few users the map loads ok, but if this thing ever took off their use of the free API would be useless as to load that many profiles would make the map load so slow people would just leave. Attempting to load more than 100 or so items on a Google map with the free API makes the site perform way to poorly to have this make sense. Also if their entire concept is based on Google maps, they will really have a problem as they are depending on a third party technology provider for the most important portion of their website.

The design itself looks very amatuer and it is not intuitive at all (In fact it seems to be unfinished, none of the main icons on the site are even linked to anything.

This years next big thing? I think not. You wouldn't happen to be involved with this particular project now would you? (I know you stated you aren't in your post, but the self promotion is quite evident) I have a "friend" that says everyone should send Real Estate Webmasters a million dollars because they are so great. I myself am going to send them some money even though I have nothing to do with them

Sorry to call you out Mikey but cmon dude, who would make their first post such a self promotional one unless they had a vested interest.

__________________
Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles [Of Google] will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit. Google.com

Hey! Mikey likes it!

I concur with Morgan on the design, the layout, and the mashup.

Oh, and that million dollar check is in the mail, but the mail gets lost a often I hear...

__________________
If you're not remembered, you never existed.