HGTV, the home and garden cable channel owned by Scripps Networks has launched a social network called Rate My Room. The new social community can be seen at HGTV.com.
The focus of HGTV online community is providing their TV audience with a place to discuss all things related to interior design. Users on Rate My Room can upload and share photos of their favorite rooms and display recent home improvements. Users can also rate and review rooms that have been newly designed or recently remodeled.
Currently the site features 5 categories where users can upload or view photos of rooms. Those categories include bathrooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens and living rooms.
Rate My Room was developed by Neighborhood America, which has created social networks and features for clients such as ABC, CBS, the Department of Defense and the Weather Channel.
Rate My Room is currently in beta and eventually plans to add features such as forums, video uploads from PCs and mobile phones along with blogs. Once these features are added it will improve the quality of the site as well as users experience.
One interesting shift pointed out by Red Herring is that more traditional media companies such as Scripts are opting to either build their own Web sites or contract with outside firms that can build sites for them instead of using YouTube or MySpace to host content.
“Scripps Networks is committed to providing our audiences unique ways to get information and ideas as well as to interact and share common interests,” said Jim Sexton, senior vice president, Scripps Networks Interactive. “We’re excited to launch Rate My Room, which uses cutting-edge technology to enable good old-fashioned conversations and connections, thus benefiting both the user and the brand.”
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