Social networking part two

Following on from today’s earlier social networking top green tips post, Greenbang also has got her hands on the list of the world’s top green social networking sites that are out there.

Lady Greenbang is a little miffed that she hasn’t made the top 15 but she’s sure she’s close to the group.  The official list has been compiled by SRB Marketing and was accurate as of June 27 of this year.

Yahoo! Green tops the list but the ranking site, Alexa, doesn’t understand subdomains.  As a result Greenbang suspects the ranking is for Yahoo! as a whole and is disqualifying the site from the top 5.

The top 5 follow:

Care 2: The site started as a portal site in 1998 and has the majority of its 9 million members from this work.  In 2004 it added its social networking component.  This still leaves much room for improvement.

Treehugger: Possibly the best known green community site online. It gives strong news and asks quite bold questions.  Greenbang would recommend this above Care 2.  In addition to an active discussion forum, the site also runs Hugg, a Digg-esque site which puts the top user selected stories on its front page.

Gaia: formerly ‘Zaadz, Gaia has about 200,000 members.  It sounds like bobbins but Zaadz mission statement was to “change the world,” and to do it on a grass roots level, by letting people who share common interests to find each other.  It’s still not perfect and Greenbang suspects that other sources might complete that mission more effectively.

Kiva: Greenbang has a softspot for this site.  Instead of a consumer agenda it strives for sustainable development and is effectively a VC site for developing countries.  The one thing Greenbang would like to know is, how much regulation goes onto the site?  Do lenders get burned?  Is there the regulation to stop international loan sharks?  The site was founded in 2005, and connects lenders with entrepreneurs in developing countries. Lenders are able to feel a personal connection with a project and can get progress updates from the borrowers, instead of feeling that they are giving money to a nameless institution.

We Can Solve It:  The site has over 1.3 million members and deserves more.  It’s part of The Alliance for Climate Protection – a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate former Vice President Al Gore.  As you’d expect, coming from Al Gore, its ultimate aim is to halt global warming.  The site is also worth checking out today as it currently has Al Gore’s speech delivered in Washington yesterday.