Two months ago, a new contender entered the social networking ring currently dominated by Web giants Facebook and Myspace.

College.com, “the social and academic networking site for college students only,” launched nationally on Sept. 25 and has gained substantial popularity in its first two months.

“We have only been running shy of a few months, but we already have 15,000 users,” said Whittney Laws, public relations manager for the new site. “We usually have 300 to 400 new users per day, and we get a lot of viewer traffic as well.”

According to the site’s founder and president Jon Davidman, College.com is entirely different from other popular social networking sites.

“When Facebook alienated their core user, the college student, and opened up their network, we saw this as a huge opportunity to provide a secure online social environment for college students,” Davidman wrote in an email to The Daily. “The advantage of College.com over other online communities is our focus. We are 100 percent focused on college students. College.com is a one-stop shop for information and communication between students.”

In order to login to the site, a member must provide a valid email address ending in “.edu.” College.com then verifies the address and domain name before the member can log in.

The privacy provided by limiting membership to college students and professors is touted as the site’s primary advantage over other social networking platforms.

“Facebook and Myspace want to be everything to everybody,” Davidman wrote. “We want to be everything to the college student. We want students to register and immediately feel in the loop of life at their school and not worry about employers and parents invading their privacy.”

Although both students and professors can use the site, the two groups are separated by different networks.

“When professors login they see a completely different screen,” Laws said. “They are on a separate network and cannot view anything on your page.”

Features of College.com include academic elements, which, according to Davidman, “will enhance members’ overall college experience by simplifying their lives and connecting them to their campus.”

“Our academic section is comprised of a classroom portal that allows students to join their ‘virtual’ class,” Davidman said. “It lists their professors and also provides professor ratings and reviews. Our application allows students to create notes and flash cards to share with others in their class.”

The site also incorporates stringent privacy settings to preserve its image as an intimate social network.

“As opposed to the set-up on Facebook, where you have to set your profile to private, you are automatically set to private [on College.com],” Laws said. “No one can see or view any of your pictures or blogs unless they are a friend of yours.”

“Users love the photo section,” Davidman added. “We built a feature that easily allows users to import their Facebook photos over to our site, or use our easy photo up-loader to add hundreds of photos at a time. A lot of students have been importing their photo albums because they know they are secure on our site, where they don’t have to worry about employers looking at them.”

According to Laws, College.com is not meant to be a replacement for social networking sites currently in use.

“I’m sure people will still use their other networks, just like some use both Facebook and Myspace,” he said. “[College.com] is just more intricate for college academics, and we want to be another place where students need and want to go to network with their friends and groups.”

The site, which recently opened to Stanford email addresses, faces mixed opinions from students.

“It’s going to be like what Google Video was to YouTube,” said Barry Burns ‘09. “[College.com] is a new community trying to compete with an already outstanding social community, and even though it might have better features, the first community is simply set in us.”

Anna Schapiro ‘09 agreed that the new site is up against some stiff competition.

“The problem with social networking sites is that they need a lot of people in order to make it work,” she said. “People are already on Facebook, and that’s working fine. I don’t think enough people will switch to make it work.”

“I don’t think I’ll start using it, at least not now,” added Tina Cardaci ‘09.

Vasant Ramachandran ‘11 was open-minded.

“I would probably consider using both,” he said. “[College.com] looks pretty cool, especially when choosing classes and professors as an upperclassman becomes more important. It could help you to become more aware of what’s going on.”