Social Tools For Parents

The NY Times did a piece today on the wave of kid-oriented social apps, which, actually are for the parents:

[from It’s Social Networking for Babies - Twitter From the Cradle - NYTimes.com by Camille Sweeney]

Call it convenient. Call it baby overshare. But a host of new sites, including Totspot, Odadeo, Lil’Grams and Kidmondo, now offer parents a chance to forgo the e-mail blasts of, say, their newborn’s first trip home and instead invite friends and family to join and contribute to a network geared to connecting them to the baby in their lives.

“It’s an interesting model,” said Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist for the Pew Internet & American Life Project. “Everyone can decide how much or little they want to know about a baby, which avoids the situation of receiving a few too many e-mails about someone’s wonderful child, and parents can decide how much they want to share — in minimal or maximal ways.”

But does the world really need online social networking for babies?

A few entrepreneurs and many Web-forward parents think so. As of this month, Totspot has accumulated 15,000 users. Kidmondo and Lil’Grams, both started last year, each have thousands of users worldwide.

My pal Gregarious Narain is the evil genius behind Lil’Grams, which is a Tumblr inspired social media tool. Greg took second place at a recent Startup Camp here in San Francisco for that app.