I am guessing Ning already has the upper hand in this niche. Perhaps if this application had launched a few months ago, it would have made similar waves as Ning.
Does Ning only let you make social networks now? I remember during the beta test they said it was going to let you make any type of web app, from Amazon to Craigslist. I haven't really checked back since then.
It did in fact launch a while ago (not sure if it was a few months, but it was a while before Ning). But, you're right -- Ning has a lot of publicity momentum now.
