Ello, the Anti-Facebook Social Network

Ello is an ad-free, invite-only and independent social network that has been going viral over the web for the past few weeks.
Ello launched in March but has recently received sudden popularity which was completely unexpected even by their own team according to Ello’s founders, designer Todd Berger.

It’s the anti-Facebook

Ello’s manifesto starts with a clear message directed towards Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “Your social network is owned by advertisers.” ” Every post you share, every friend you make, and every link you follow is tracked, recorded, and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.” The menifesto ends with the following statement: “You are not a product.”

Another reason for this unexpected popularity may trace back to what the Daily Dot called  “Great Gay Facebook Exodus” prompted by Facebook about using their stage names in which Ello has welcomed people switching from Facebook in protest about Facebook’s controversial naming policy, which forces users to use their legal names.

Features

Ello has limited features such as posting status updates, posting photos, commenting on their friends’ posts and see the number of Views per post. The new built features include Video integration (Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion), Audio integration (Soundcloud, Mixcloud) andNotification Center filtering.

Ello is still a beta version and a lot of features are currently being worked on.

It’s private

For people concerned about the amount of personal information and for those who hate the massive amount of ads on Facebook and other social networks,  Ello Founders stated that: “Ello is a USA Public Benefit Corporation, making it virtually impossible for Ello to ever sell ads or user data.”

Ello is growing at an amazing pace, claims report that right now Ello is receiving massive number of requests with more than 30,000 requests an hour.

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If you would like to join Ello, just send me your email or ask for an invitation code!