By Michele Chan Santos

You go to MySpace and FaceBook to talk to friends, look at pictures of each other and make funny comments.

But if shopping is your passion, you need more. You need to know where to find the cutest little beach cover-up (like this lace number by Shoshanna, right) or to gather ideas for your birthday wish list. Maybe you just want someone to tell you what necklace to buy. Enter the burgeoning Web phenomenon: the social shopping network.

These sites offer MySpace-like socializing combined with shopping-specific twists. The networks — such as Kaboodle, Stylehive or Thisnext — make it easy to connect with others who are fanatical about the stuff you love, be it scented body lotion, Nikon cameras, mountain bikes, high-end shoes or designer furniture.

The numbers of faithful shoppers flocking to these sites are mushrooming. “Social shopping is still a small corner of the Internet, accounting for far fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. Web visits. But visits to social shopping sites took an eightfold leap in 2007,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

The general idea is that users sign up and create personalized pages that capture lists, favorites, their recommendations and opinions. Then they can connect with other like-minded shoppers to see what they’re touting.

Take a quick tour of some of Shopperati’s social shopping selections:

The Whole Kit and Kaboodle

At Kaboodle, which was purchased by media giant Hearst Corp. last year, “Kaboodlers”

Pages: 1 2 3 4