The future of online social networking?

Whether you're into baseball or backgammon, Harry Potter or heavy metal, Ning has an online network for you.A fast-growing, free Web site launched two years ago, Ning lets members custom build their own social-networking platforms based around their passions and pastimes.As Facebook and MySpace connect people to friends and family, Ning gathers users around common interests. The site hosts networks for hip-hop music lovers, video gaming moms and teens obsessed with the Twilight book and movie franchise. Other popular Ning networks bring people together online for political and social causes such as "Pickens' Plan," which advocates wind energy.Ning had 4.7 million unique visitors as of January and surpassed 1 million social networks -- about one-fifth of them considered active -- last month.Ning also enhanced its site in March with new features such as a real-time activity feed so users can get up-to-the-minute reports -- not unlike Twitter's tweets -- about what others are doing.