Websites. Software. Consulting

What is h2g2?

By Toby Mason

Added Wednesday 23/07/2008

Some might recognise this as the acronym for the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but I've obviously had my head in the sand for the past 9 years because its also an online proposition from the BBC. On writing there were 1283 users online, who are these people and why haven't they told me about this?

But what is h2g2? To quote the website itself:

"h2g2 is an unconventional guide to life, the universe and everything, an encyclopaedic project where entries are written by people from all over the world. h2g2 was launched in April 1999, and the BBC took over the running of the site in February 2001 as part of our drive to develop new and innovative online services."

1999! Could this have been the first true social network?

Well I've signed up for an account and it certainly has all the features of the social networks of today. You can write a profile about yourself, you can post messages on other peoples profiles and you can even invite people to become your friend.

However, where photo galleries tend to be the focus point of other social networks on h2g2 its articles, a bit like a wiki but far more archaic.

Users, or "researchers" as they are known, can write tid bits, papers, articles about absolutely anything they want. These get posted in their "space" which is aptly called "My Space" that's right....My Space. Other researchers can then comment on these posts and create discussions.

But that's not all. The best most positively commented on articles can get submitted for "peer review" and feature predominantly on the site. Remind anyone of Digg, Twitter and other social bookmarking sites?

I am truly astonished by this. A 10 year old site that looks better than Myspace (not really, but close), has more credibility than Facebook and is essentially the first social bookmarking site and blogtropolis.

So come on peeps, tell the world and sign up to h2g2 the nets best kept secret as far as I'm concerned....and don't forget to become my friend!

visit h2g2 website
wiki entry

p.s It was actually created by Douglas Adams himself ....genius.
p.p.s there is even a mobile version