Tennisopolis - New Tennis Social Network

We joined last week and have been enjoying the conversations, connections and general tennis-goodness. Check it out, join today and get into the community. Click here for more

24hTennis.com Launches Social Network for Tennis

24hTennis launched its social networking and information site for tennis players, parents, coaches, clubs and schools today. (Read the press release)

The idea is to enable tennis players, tennis fanatics and enthusiasts to keep in touch with each other and the tennis buzz of the day. As with any social network, you can share photos and videos, create personal groups and even maintain a daily, weekly or monthly journal using your blog or forum. It is running on ning, the social networking service.

This isn't the first tennis social network, however. Mesh Tennis has been around for a couple years now, in fact we blogged about it back in August of 2007.

Check out 24hTennis

Review of MeshTennis.com

I live in the greater Phoenix, AZ area, have for the last year. Before that I lived in Boston for 6 years, and before that I lived in PA for 25+ years. The one problem I have had once moving out of PA, and a major factor in my not playing as much as I would have liked, is not having someone to play with. Occasionally I would find someone random, usually co-workers, but with them you're not sure whether you're going to be playing a terrible player, or someone who can kick your butt - neither is too appealing. And I don't think I'll get my money's worth from joining a club right now being pretty busy with work and family.

Enter MeshTennis.com. Social networking meets local tennis. Think MySpace meets LinkedIn meets the bulletin board at your club or local courts. A very nice looking site, well-designed and easy to use and navigate. You load up your profile with your playing level, what gear you like, where you're located, etc. You can build groups or just use it to find other players, in your area, who are around your playing level. I just got a message recently, actually, to play. And as soon as the temperature dips below triple digits...I'm there!

Social networking sites like MeshTennis.com are only as strong as the number of people who are involved, and how much they engage with the system. So I encourage you to go there now, sign-up, and start playing and meeting new people!

www.meshtennis.com

Review of WorkInTennis.com

A new website has launched, sponsored by TIA (Tennis Industry Assoc.), for tennis job seekers. Its called WorkInTennis.com. Not the most inspired name, but damn clear. I'm not really looking for a job in tennis, I was curious...plus you never know what you may see of interest. The minute I got there I went into website product manager mode, a role I've played many times. The navigation is a little clunky and the UI isn't designed particularly well, its not clear the path they're looking for you to take. Examples:

- The top nav bar has the Home button second from the left. That's just weird. I've seen it to the far left, the far right, and the very top right corner. But why two in?

- On the homepage I clicked the "Make a Profile" link, taking me to another page which (1) wasn't a registration form, (2) didn't tell me what to do, and (3) had the second link to "Get Started" buried at the bottom of the page and didn't do anything to make the link stand out. During the regis. process, I went through three pages of forms...and then it went looney...errors everywhere...told me to contact the website administrator. I got the announcement for this new site from the TennisWire.org newsletter. My advice, having been burned by this many times...especially if you're not a web company...work the bugs our first. I look forward to it being fixed so I can check it out more.

Check it out here