The new social networking site, Ello, launched about a month ago with a just a small 90 people. This week the site has seen a surge of invite requests with around 40,000 per hour. The site is currently still in beta and is invite only for now. Ello wants users to communicate and enjoy an ads free site where they can be whoever they want to as long as they abide by basic rules. Co-founder Paul Budnitz, helped start the platform about a year ago with some friends and with the help from a VC firm, they were able to expand to what they are today.
Since Ello is still invite only, a friend of mine invited me to join the social network. If you don’t receive an invite from a friend and want to join, you can request an invite on at www.ello.co
Once you are invited, all you need to create an account is an email address, username (similar to a Twitter or Instgram handle) and a password. After your profile is created, you can personalize it with a bio, profile photo, cover image and personal website. The interface is very simple and fairly user friendly. Once your profile is ready to go, you can make posts and discover new people to follow and write on their profiles.
Searching for people can be a bit challenging on the site but I was able to connect with a few people I knew. The “discover” page, where you search for other users needs a bit of work because currently it is not so user friendly. One observation I found interesting is the ability to see how many people view posts on not only your own profile but everyone else’s profiles as well. I think the site has great potential to bring more people away from Facebook but it is definitely going to take time. When more people start joining Ello and people find all their friends preferring the site, that is when it will take flight. For now, Ello creators have their work cut out for more developments to the site.