Mother and baby social network Gurgle is to release a series of books through HarperCollins.

The Mothercare-backed network will release three paperbacks on parenting next spring.

Nifa McLaughlin, site editor for Gurgle, said of the five-figure deal, “It’s a real testament to all who work on the site that Gurgle has become such an influential voice within the parenting marketplace within a short space of time.”

Denise Bates publishing director of HarperCollins,

User-generated online community Facebook views itself as a utility rather than a social network, the co-founder and editor of Social Media Portal has said.

The web 2.0 resource’s Rachel Hawkes highlighted a distinction between websites that are based on making new friends and those focused on communication between existing acquaintances - with Facebook viewing itself as the latter.

“Facebook likes to be seen as a social utility, rather than a network - what this means is that their aim is to help people connect and communicate more efficiently with the people they already know, as opposed to locating new friends and social groups based around a particular interest area,” she said.

The recent introduction of Facebook Chat is merely a “natural progression” for the site, the expert added.

Rather than representing Facebook’s attempt to move into areas of the web beyond social media, the application is characterised as just another way in which friends can communicate online.

Nielsen Online has named Facebook as the second-fastest growing website in the UK in 2007.

When it comes to becoming a force in social networks, Google and Yahoo have tried and largely failed. To be sure, Google has Orkut, which is popular in Brazil and the Philippines India, but not the United States. For its part, Yahoo has largely pulled the plug on Yahoo 360. But it is clear that MySpace and Facebook (and Bebo in Britain) remain firmly on top of the social network heap.

So now Google and Yahoo are taking another tack — turning themselves into social sites without building a social network.

“We are not trying to be another social network,” said Yahoo’s president, Susan Decker, on Tuesday, during the company’s earnings conference call. “Rather, by linking users’ favorite destinations and content, with their friends’ families and communities, we can deliver better relevance on a scale that no one else has achieved.” Two days later, the company’s new chief technology officer, Ari Balogh, speaking at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, elaborated a bit on the idea. “We don’t think of social as a destination,” Mr. Balogh said. “We think of social as a dimension.”

What does that mean? It means that Yahoo will try to bring the kinds of features that are common on Facebook and MySpace to its own sites. Users may be able to share photos, videos, news reading habits or calendars with their friends and receive alerts about what friends are up to. Who is a friend might depend on context. For instance, a user’s activities on Yahoo Sports may only be shared with that user’s fantasy sports playmates.

Google has long hinted that it would take a similar approach. Earlier this week, it suggested that users of iGoogle, a personalized home page service, might be able to share activities with friends. And the company has allowed users of Reader, its blog viewing service, to share items with friends.

One challenge both companies face, however, is how to turn the voluminous amounts of data about relationships that they have in their e-mail, calendar and other services, into “social graph,” a set of relationships establishing who is friends with whom. They will have to tread carefully. Google’s efforts to determine who Reader users wanted to share items with was greeted with some alarm. At a lunch with reporters, Mr. Balogh promised that Yahoo wouldn’t force relationships on anyone without their consent.

Mission: Create a social network for the Christian community.

Safety net: Anyone who logs on is designated “red.” Those who supply a working phone number are “yellow”; a credit-card number will get you designated “green.” This makes all participants accountable — you can create a group for green users only, which will consequently make the social-networking neighborhood more exclusive.

Gates of heaven: ZoeCity invites users to post secular content as long as it doesn’t violate the site’s code of conduct and content policy. But any spiritual content must abide by the Christian faith, with a more thorough scrutiny process than on the “mainstream” social networks. Additionally, the premium service includes real-time monitoring.

Financials: The private company has yet to make a profit, and plans to generate revenue the old-fashioned way: advertising. Additionally, it wants to partner with global Christian groups to drive large numbers of users to the site.

Employees: 20

My holy space: “The most popular social networks treat all friends the same,” Wong said. “If you are a friend, then you get to see the entire user’s personal information. In the real world, we all have friends that are based on context. Your work friends are different from your best friends. They are also different from your family. We allow you to segment your friends to different circles and then assign privacy rights to what they can or cannot see.”

Common courtesy: Wong said the moderating process will not stifle free expression. “There may be a difference about baptism, whether it requires total immersion or just a handful of water over the head,” he said. “We will encourage these healthy discussions, as long as there are no personal attacks.”

www.womenswebdaily.com, the online social network for women, has re-launched a new and improved website and is actively looking for writers.

womensWEBdaily.com is the free social networking site created by and for women 25 and older. It began in 1998 as a space for women to share news and ideas.

Women’s Web Daily Magazine is the cornerstone of the site. Women are encouraged to submit their articles, poetry, recipes and short stories.

Join womenswebdaily.com and you can:

• Create a personal profile scrapbook page or make a family scrapbook page
• Publish your poetry, short stories and articles
• Share with your opinions — personal consumer reporting
• Network online with family and friends and make new friends
• Post your photos and videos to share with family and friends
• Fun forums for beauty tips, health, kids, shopping,

“We have always been known as: A screen with a view. A voice of your own,” Amy Jordan, editor, said. “Today we are please to introduce our new social networking software that helps make our neighborhood a home.”

Join free at www.womenswebdaily.com

For more information, contact editor@womenswebdaily.com