Tech Shout

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If you and your friends may have moved into different cities due to jobs, and there is no way of catching up at all, then read on. A web site called CherryTAP claims to have set up the first online pub on the Internet that gives users the same feeling as being in a pub but from the comfort of their home computer or notebook. CherryTAP seems to be an online networking site with a real twist!

It sounds a bit strange, doesn’t it? CherryTAP was set up by three U.S surfing friends, whose jobs moved them to different cities. They could thus continue their weekly drinking and mingling session in an online pub. You don’t have to actually drink, but it can surely be an ice breaker to offer somebody a virtual drink.

According to Bill Lee, 36, a freelance marketer from San Francisco who was one of the three founders, “We liked to go after a long day at work to a bar and hang out and have a few drinks. When we moved apart we couldn’t do that anymore so we wanted to recreate that online.”

Lee also said that CherryTAP at the moment has over 700,000 users in the United States and Britain itself. He also said that CherryTAP was different from other social networking Web sites, in the sense that one does not need to have a network of friends to begin.

CherryTAP, which does not incorporate any form of advertising on its Website, has managed to create the same feeling as being in a pub. This online pub also has ‘Happy Hours’. Users have to pay $100 to sponsor an hour-long session, with their name appearing at the top of the Web site. Other users can then raise their glasses to toast them.

“Users can give each other virtual drinks and this makes people more comfortable to chat to each other. The person who sponsors happy hour becomes the most popular person on the site and they get 15 minutes of fame,” added Lee.

So if CherryTAP is an online pub, there where are the barmen? Well, instead of a barman, who in a real pub is often used as a sounding board, users can send in questions which are answered by the community and there is a team of volunteer bouncers to ensure people in the online pub are well behaved.