Ning is an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networksSocial Graph-iti, The Economist, Oct 18, 2007, launched in October 2005. Ning was co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini. Ning is Andreessen's third startup (after Netscape and Opsware), and gets much of its notability from Andreessen's successes with those companies.Evaluating Tech Startups: The Risks And Rewards, by John Foley, InformationWeek, Nov 10, 2007.Second acts: Seven tech titans today, by George Jones, Computerworld, Dec 3, 2007

Ning means "peace" in Chinese, as explained by Gina Bianchini on the company blog and it is also a surname in chinese .The Story Behind the Ning Name, by Gina Bianchini, Ning Blog, April 11, 2007

Features

Ning hopes to compete with large social sites like MySpace and Facebook, by appealing to users who want to create networks around specific interests or have limited technical skills. The unique feature of Ning is that anyone can create their own custom social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific audiences. At its launch, Ning offered several simple base websites developed internally and by members of a closed beta. In late September 2006, Ning narrowed its focus to offering a group website, a photos website, and a videos website for people to copy and use for any purpose. Later, these three templates were superseded by a single customizable template aimed at allowing non-developers to more easily customize their copy of the social website. However, Ning does allow developers to have some source level control of their social networks, enabling them to change features and underlying logic. Ning has also been used by educators in S-GI to conduct a book study on Curriculum Mapping. Many educators are using ning for developing educational resources. Features were customized so that participants could upload pictures and videos of student developed projects as well as links to blogs and Flickr.

Ning has announced support for the OpenSocial API that Google announced in late 2007. Developers will be able to run OpenSocial gadgets within their networks.The high-stakes fight for your friends, by Josh Quittner and Jessi Hempel, Fortune, Nov 22, 2007