Lafango

Lafango is a social media website that allows users to create profiles, upload and share unlimited media audio, video, images, and text, communicate in user created communities, compete in contests, create free electronic press kits, and blog. Previously named TalentTrove, the website was named one of the top 10 Internet companies to watch out for in 2009 not only in terms of the idea but for its technology and adoption. It serves as a multimedia platform for talents and talent seekers and provides an artistic community for like-minded individuals to share and grow.

Lafango boasts original, user-generated media content. This differentiates it from other social networking and media sharing sites because users only upload media that they have attested to creating themselves.

Features

Lafango is a social networking site built around user-generated content. Whereas users of YouTube might upload any video they find interesting, the focus of Lafango is each person’s individual talent, regardless of what kind of content he or she creates. That means only original works are shared on the site. TalentTrove users can upload a variety of multimedia types. Once media is uploaded, it is then associated with the uploading user's stage.

Users can also create text documents which will be displayed in Lafango's text reader with the purpose of online self publishing. The reader application presents text to the viewer like a book.

Stage

A user's stage on Lafango is a virtual portfolio which contains background information as well as a browser for media viewing. Each stage has a unique URL based on user name of the individual. Within Stages, users can group their media together by media file type. The presentation of each collection of files changes based on the file type associated with that collection. Video, Audio, Images, and Text collections all have unique layouts that make the viewing and browsing experience very easy on the visitor.

Media Discovery

Tag, title, description, and categorizing system all allow for users to specify how they prefer their media to be found. Singers, musicians, painters and dancers are represented, alongside more niche talents like extreme stunts, hair styling and culinary arts. This allows users the option to portray themselves in more than one category and display their talents in the correct classification. A location search can also be executed, allowing for talent seekers and agents to find particular types of performers for a specific location.

Stage Of The Day

Lafango highlights users on the homepage through Stage. Stage of the Day is an honorary award given to a different registered user on a daily basis. This user is chosen because of their contribution to the site, participation in the community, media quality, and presentation.

Contests

To promote user interaction on the site, Lafango also offers free contests with varying themes and prizes with the winners usually being picked by way of community voting.