Social networks are everywhere these days. From the Big 3 (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) to smaller networks you might not have heard of before, and those designed for one specific task (think Instagram), social networks have come to dominate online life. You might wonder, with all this diversity and overexposure to social networks, what makes the development of yet another one special? Well, there are a few reasons that Zurker should stand out in your mind.
Dual Streams – Home + Street
If like most people, you have an account on Facebook, you’re familiar with the term “stream”. Most social networks have one (or the equivalent). On Facebook, your stream shows all the updates of your friends and the various pages you’re connected with and you can choose either “most popular” or “most recent”. Twitter’s main stream is similar. Even G+ has a stream – you can choose to view all your circles or individual circles for the updates you want. Zurker offers something a little different.
Zurker offers a Home stream and a Street stream. They’re quite different and switching between them is easy. On your main page (reached by clicking the Zurker logo), you’ll see a button for each. Home will take you to your home stream and the updates that affect you directly, including comments others have left on your posts and more. Street will take you to updates from contacts and subscriptions.
Tags
How many times have you logged into Facebook or Twitter and groaned in frustration as you have to scroll through page after page of inanities just to find the information you want? It’s frustrating, but what can you do? Actually, Zurker offers a pretty innovative way around this. With Zurker, you can use tags to your advantage for both incoming and outgoing information. Zurker requires that you tag every connection on the network and that’s important. Ever feel like you’re being overloaded with information? Uncheck a few tags (family, friends or whatever tags you’ve decided to use) and you won’t see updates from those people until you turn the tags back on.
Own a Piece of the Network
While tags and the dual Home/Street stream are both pretty cool features, there’s one thing about Zurker that really stands out. The network gives you the chance to own a share (or more than one) of the profits. While other social networks court big investors, sell stocks on Wall Street or make it easy for big business to earn money, Zurker is more about courting you, the user. Buying vShares lets you own a piece of the network, and can be bought with cash or earned by inviting friends to the network using your referral code.
Giving Back to Users
In addition to vShares, Zurker is about giving back to users in other ways as well. While Facebook and Twitter might take your loyalty for granted, Zurker realizes that users make the network’s world go round, and offer rewards for your loyalty in the form of promotions and giveaways. For instance, the New Year Promo for 2013 gives all users the chance to win a free iPad or Microsoft Surface tablet, just for doing what you already do – using the network. By accruing zurks (the Zurker equivalent of a FB “like”), you can earn a chance to win your choice of tablet.
Cons to the Network
While there are a lot of innovative features to Zurker, new users might find that there are a couple of things lacking. For instance, currently, there’s no way to search the network for users. Likewise, there’s no built-in chat feature. All communication with other members has to go through comments on posts and photos.
Try Zurker Today!
In summary, Zurker offers quite a lot of innovation and has the potential to grow enormously. Between vShares, iPad giveaways and the ability to customize the updates you see rather than overloading you with updates, it’s a pretty cool place and one that you should definitely check out.
