Social networks for dogs, bikes & sneakers

By Paul Thomasch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A San Francisco native who loves the beach, parks, running and dancing, Marco has easily made connections over the Internet, racking up 5,200 on his profile. Not bad for a 4-year-old Miniature Schnauzer.

Marco is just one of thousands of dogs with a Web profile on Dogster.com, an online community featuring pet photos posted by owners along with pooch videos, diaries and travel tips.

Dogs not your thing? Cat people can go to Catster.com; car lovers can put their ride on Boompa.com, and there's Sneakerplay.com for those who are crazy about ... well, sneakers. Obsessed with your bike or motorcycle? Give them a profile on Velospace.org or Motortopia.com.

These are just some of the sites dubbed "passion-centric" or "object-oriented" communities, a niche alternative to the most popular social sites like Facebook.com or MySpace.com, which draw a wide audience with millions of students and young professionals.

"These are about adults sharing about what they are passionate about in a safe, fun, informative environment," said Ted Rheingold, 37, who founded Dogster and its sister site, Catster.

"You're not sharing names, or your photo. Nobody is saying your music is stupid," he added.

Whereas Facebook or MySpace profiles would feature a person -- say, John Smith -- passion-oriented communities focus on an object or area of interest. It could be a bike, a car, a pet or anything else that may be the center of your world.

"The best thing about this is you're able to connect with people from all over the world who are into the same thing," said Robleh Jama, 25, co-founder of Sneakerplay.