London, 20 July 2006 – British software company etribes today launched a secure, easy to use, online personal publishing and photo-sharing service for adults who are too busy to ‘blog’.
etribes (www.etribes.com) lets people create their own personal website at the push of a button, and update it regularly with news and photos. It is designed for adults with busy social lives who do not want the hassle and technical challenge of maintaining a blog, but who do want to be able to share news and photos easily with friends and family.
Simon Grice, the founder of etribes, says there are millions of people in Britain who fall into this category. “There’s a lot of hype about blogging, but the truth is that most people aren’t ‘bloggers’ and don’t want to be,” he said. “However, our research shows that there are about five million adults in the UK who are interested in finding easier and more convenient ways of communicating with their ‘tribe’ of friends, family and associates.”
Grice believes that by 2008, 90 per cent of these – or 4.5 million people – will be using some kind of personal publishing or ‘life management’ tool to share news, photos and personal information and stay in touch with an increasingly geographically-dispersed network of friends, relatives, colleagues, club members and associates. etribes lets people do that in a safe, convenient and simple way.
The benefits of using etribes include:
• Personal publishing (‘blogging’) and photo-hosting all in one site
• No technical skills required – just type your news and click to publish
• Upload photos easily from camera, desktop or mobile phone
• Stylish website templates with no adverts or ‘clutter’
• Define groups of people and publish news and photos only to those people
• A catchy www.etribes.com/yourname web address to keep forever
• Low annual fee of £24 for a full etribes account with up to 10GB of photo storage
• Additional services let you phone and text people from your desktop
• Friendly, UK-based telephone support
etribes already has 27,000 customers, who are using it for everything from keeping friends and family up to date with their wedding plans, to recording holidays, maintaining a weight loss diary and displaying a collection of rare coins.
Dave Cheeseman and his fiancée, Jen, maintain an etribes site at www.etribes.com/jenanddaveswedding. Dave said: “I'm using an etribes site as a wedding blog. It has all the information on it for the upcoming event, which helps us keep in touch with the guests. It also saves on lots of mailing out.”
Retired geography teacher Robert Self maintains an etribes site at www.etribes.com/odysseus, which he uses to store and display his holiday photos. He said: “I previously enjoyed writing up my travels in photo album form for my own interest and that of family and friends. When I heard about etribes I thought I would do what I had previously done, in electronic form, to see how it compared. People do not have to 'wait' for the album any more. They can just dip into the site when they feel like it. What I particularly like is that you can search the pictures for extra detail when viewed in original size and they are saved there as an insurance in case I lose the originals.”
Thirty-four year-old Dave Darrington maintains an etribes site at www.etribes.com/daves_rare_coins, which he uses to document and display his collection of ancient and rare coins. He said: “I love the fact that it is easy to use - no technical expertise is required! I think the success of the etribes sites is in their simplicity, with enough features to be able to create a (hopefully) professional looking site and with no adverts.”
etribes is ready now for people to sign up and start creating their own website.
About etribes
etribes is a British service that lets people create their own website, where they can write a blog, publish and store photos, keep a record of all their contacts, and make calls and send text messages from their PC. etribes is for busy, sociable adults who are looking for easier ways to stay in touch with their ‘tribe’. For more information about etribes, and to create an account, please visit www.etribes.com.