By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

Want to find a dance partner near you? Want to find a workout partner near you? Want to find a tennis partner?

A new website called CribSocial.com can help you. This Bay Area startup, which was launched in November of 2009, provides a platform where people with similar interests can connect and socialize offline through activities in their neighborhood.

While many social websites such as Facebook and MySpace are mostly viewed as indoor activities that are enjoyed alone in your house or apartment, CribSocial.com encourages offline interaction, indeed that is the entire point of the site.

It’s free service which allows people to create and participate in social activities in many different categories such as dancing, hanging out, sports, education etc. People can look for a dance partner, hiking groups or simply someone interesting to hang out with. Besides the individual activities users can also create social groups that meet regularly as well as one time special events such as a sports event or music concerts.

As stated, CribSocial.com’s mission is to encourage people to socialize more offline and meet new people through activities. It has a goal is to keep the service free and simple.

Users can search and find activities using CribSocial’s search portal. It provides options to search using the keywords, category, number of participants and proximity by zip code. Searching for activities does not require any special sign in or registration. However, in order to create an activity you need to have an account with CribSocial.

Creating an activity is relatively straightforward and only requires basic information such as title, date and time, location and detail of the activity. The activity’s location is also shown on a map for better geographical understanding. They want to make it extremely easy for anybody to find a companion who also shares their passion.

“The goal of the website is to encourage people to socialize more with locals in their community and experience the world outside virtual social communities” says Founder, Ravinder Virk.

The founder of CribSocial.com, Virk is an entrepreneur from Silicon Valley who grew up in India. Since graduating from UC Berkeley with bachelors in Computer Science in 2005, he has been working for one of the leading online price comparison-shopping engines, Nextag Inc. Virk also helped to make the independent music site, Vjingle.com a reality.

The company is launched to the US market and plans to expand internationally within a year. The site is already seeing various activities forming across the country. Keeping their commitment to being completely free for users, the service displays textual ads as a source of revenue. So you social butterflies should take advantage of this free site and plan your next activity. Also if you are new to the big city, use it to hook up with like-minded folks.

Post from: GreatStartups.com