Finding cool stuff on the internet is pretty common these days. Spending an hour getting lost inside some amazing new website is all too easy to do.
Many sites like this are free; some ask you to pay a fee. None of them normally have a button inviting you to make a clone of the service on offer, which you can play with to your heart's content.
None of them except Ning, that is.
Ning (ning.com) is the latest strange trend on the web, describing itself as a "social playground" where people can create web-based tools using simple snap-together kits, and share those tools with others.
So you can browse Ning either as a user, someone keen to start using these tools and wanting to make the most of the services they offer; or as a developer, someone looking for a great site to "clone".
Every Ning website has a "Clone this app!" button on the right side.
The idea is that if you see something you like, you can instantly make a copy of all its functionality, but change the details to suit your own purposes.
You might enjoy the Photo Sharing site (photosharing.ning.com), but would like to create something similar purely for use by members of your family, or people in your town. Just click the Clone button and start customising.
Stranger still, whatever you do it, with Ning is free. Make weblogs, applications, clone anything you like - none of it costs you a penny.
And while each Ning application or site exists independently, they are collectively intertwined using keywords (Ning calls them tags) and user identities.
Browsing Ning becomes quite an adventure as a result. Starting from the front page, you might head off towards an application that takes your fancy. Then you might visit the home page of the person who made it - and see a list of the tags they have used across Ning.
You might then follow a few of these tags and find yourself at something completely different.
Because the tags apply across Ning and all the sites that have been created with it, they are a great way of collating related content. The page for the 'beach' tag combines photos, weblog posts, and classified ads about beaches.
If Ning has one fault, it is that at the moment it feels like a relatively empty community. There are some fascinating applications under development within Ning, but some of them feel as though they could do with a few more regular users to get the buzz started.
But it's early days. Ning has not been around for long, and is deliberately taking a long-term, slow-growth view of things.
As a website and service it's impressive; but as a playground for anyone who enjoys using the internet, it's completely unique.
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Can it be true? Google is reportedly working on its own operating system software, something to rival Microsoft's Windows.
Based on the freely available and open source Linux distribution Ubuntu, it could become a serious new competitor for Microsoft and Apple to worry about - if it catches on.
