CelebSpleak: OMG, teen gossip is fun!

CelebSpleak is a new social network that's all network. The teen-targeted celebrity gossip engine from Spleak Media maintains just enough of a Web site to instruct neophyte chatterboxes how to use CelebSpleak. Users can add CelebSpleak as an AIM or MSN (now Windows Live Messenger) contact, or lodge the CelebSpleak widget into a blog or MySpace profile.

From there, users can read and send short-burst messages about celebrities or respond to gossip, known as "tattles" here, that's posted by other teens--or posers like me. Interacting on IM feels like a DOS throwback, where punching keys leads you further into lists--type "1" to read the most recent tattle, "m" to see more, or "b" to go back. The CelebSpleak widget is your more sophisticated, easily navigable app.

The franchise premise is interesting; CelebSpleak places emphasis entirely on these spores. There's no profile, no photo, no favorite music, and again, no centralized gossip home to sustain or labor to draw users to. The gossip alone remains CelebSpleak's heart and soul, plain, simple, and sometimes guilty "fun."

CelebSpleak on Windows Live Messenger is sooo retro.

(Credit: CNET Networks)