buddypresslogoNowadays Social Networking seems to be the trick of the trade. Did you ever wanted a software which possessed the elegance and extensibility similar to that of WordPress and features that you are accustomed to and use with Facebook. Well BuddyPress might be the thing you wanted.

This is what is said about BuddyPress on its own website:

BuddyPress is a suite of WordPress plugins and themes, each adding a distinct new feature. BuddyPress  contains all the features you’d expect from WordPress but aims to let members socially interact.

BuddyPress is officially considered to be the sister project of WordPress. The idea and the vision behind this social network project was to observe and analyze as to what will happen if creation of a social network would be as easy as it is to create a blog. It is no hidden fact that social activities are spreading like a major explosion.

WordPress is very powerful in terms of robustness and extensibility. It can scale upto millions of users. BuddyPress is essentially a collection of Plugins on top of WordPress to incorporate Private Messaging, friends, groups, profiles and other similar social network related features.

Here is the list of the features that it currently provides

  • Extended Profiles
  • Private Messaging
  • Friends
  • Groups
  • The Wire
  • Activity Streams
  • Blog Tracking
  • Forums

The team behind BuddyPress seems determined and has plans of bringing more innovations such as Photo Albums  to this WordPress based social network.

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Dont go on to think that BuddyPress is a possible replacement for social networks. If you are thinking of starting something new, which  provides you more control, friendlier terms of service, customizable something that fits exactly into your site, then go for BuddyPress.

The current release is 1.0 and is not for everyone’s use, for instance it requires usage of MU which is a bit complicated then setting up a regular WordPress site. Nevertheless, go on and experiment with it.