By Mark O’Neill
Obviously getting poked online is not good enough for a Russian billionaire. So Mikhail Prokhorov is going to do what any self respecting billionaire would normally do and set up a Facebook-style networking website for the upper-class, and he is calling it, ironically enough, Snob.
Which just goes to show he has a sense of humour as well as huge wads of cash. Prokhorov is Russia’s fifth richest man with an estimated wealth of $22 billion (which I’m sure he considers pocket money). So I think it’s fair to say he doesn’t spend his days installing the “Am I Hot Or Not?” widget or challenging his online buddies to a game of Battleships.
No, his online contacts move in a higher social sphere which is where the invitation-only “Snob” comes in. With two members needed to recommend your entry into the club, you can bet that membership is going to be very exclusive indeed. When you get poked on Snob, it’ll be a very sophisticated poke and you’ll definately get your money’s worth!
Speaking from an internet enthusiast perspective though, I found his site to be a little heavy on the flash graphics. Snob slowed my Firefox browser to a crawl twice (prompting me to restart the browser) and then when the site finally got moving, I was bored to tears with tacky porno-like music and stupid graphics. If this is Prokhorov’s way of shooing away the working class riff-raff, he’s succeeded as far as I’m concerned. I’m out of here.