You may have read about the latest social network, Ello, but what exactly is it? And will it take on Facebook?

So what is it?

According to the Independent, “Ello is a trendy and minimalist social network started by a bicycle designer and shop owner, which is reportedly getting 31,000 sign-up requests each hour.

“It prides itself not only on being advert-less but also on its dismissal of selling user data to third parties.”

So it’s not Facebook?

Not quite. Like Facebook, Ello tries to connect users and friends with each other – the essence of a social network. According to Lance Ulanoff of Mashable, Ello “seems to encourage big images, short thoughts and unthreaded conversation”. Unlike Facebook, Ello plans on earning money through low-cost add-on services targeted at users. And also unlike Facebook, users don’t have to share their real identities to join in the fun.

So no photos of new-born babies?

Not yet. According to Ulanoff, “Ello is full of artsy images and a lot of posts about Ello and its meteoric growth”.

Great! How do you join?

Hold your digital horses. At present Ello is open by invitation only, so you can’t just visit, register and log-on. But those lucky enough to receive a pass to Ello-dorado will enjoy some nifty safety features. One of the site’s developers, Justin Gitlin, has said:

We’re working hard on privacy features – first and foremost a Block button. This will help you deal with spammy accounts who are following everybody with reckless abandon.

We’re also building tools that will help stem this type of negative behavior from the outset. In the meantime we’re deleting abusive users as quickly as possible.

 Will it beat Facebook?

Hang on, it only launched in the summer of 2014. So possibly too early to tell. Final word from Ulanoff:

Broadly, Ello reminds me of a mashup between Tumblr and Google+. It’s image centric, with large photos taking up most of the screen (especially on smaller devices), some text (though not a lot), an unthreaded comments system and views per post. Scanning Ello also feels a little bit like walking through an artists commune: Look at this piece of wood. Isn’t it beautiful? I carved just a tiny bit of it, but left the nature intact. Let’s just stare at it for a while. Considering Ello was created by artists (and programmers, of course), this isn’t surprising.