alooph (aloo.ph) is a location-based social networking site specifically built for Filipinos. Ever since Friendster began, we fell in love with the idea of connecting with our friends and family online. As years went by, we have been part of not only Friendster but various sites which brought us closer to the people that mattered most to us (even to the people we barely even knew). Myspace came along, as well as Multiply. Sites like Twitter (follow us) and Plurk gave us the ability to quickly see and read the thoughts of our friends and even complete strangers. Of course came along the current king-of-the-hill, Facebook (visit our facebook fan page).

Social networking sites have one thing in common: to bring people together. They might differ in how they accomplish this but each one of them wants you to interact with people on their site. Facebook does it with news feeds and updates. Myspace did it mostly with common interests. Twitter simplified things and simply asked - "What are you doing?". Aloo.ph (alooph) is no different. By becoming a member of our site, we simply want to bring people together, it's how we want to accomplish that is what sets us apart.

Location-based social networking is not a new concept and we are definitely not the first ones to do this (but at least the first ones to do it here in the Philippines). Let's look back at current social networking sites and see how they have affected our daily lives. Let's use Facebook as an example (since we love it so much and so we can plug our fan page again here). Once you login on Facebook, you are a greeted with news feeds and updates about your friends and family. In other words, you are updated at a glance about the lives of the people you are connected to. You can then interact with these people, by commenting on their pictures or status, by poking them or by throwing them a virtual lamb or giving them a virtual drink. This is how we socialize in Facebook. Here is where we ask the question, Is the social aspect of "Social Networking Sites" really being social? Yes, it seems a little bit philosophical and we don't want to pretend we know the answer. We're just throwing it out there for you guys to ponder upon. Whatever you guys decide on how to answer that question will depend on what being "social" means to you. For us, all we know is that we want to bring the title "social networking site" to a whole new level, to a level that actually brings us out of the virtual world and into the physical.

This is where we want to come in. Alooph strives to bridge the gap between online and offline social networking. Of course the online aspect (which is our website) will then become the tool to keep you connected offline.