Loowa, launched earlier this month, is a nice and simple social networking site. At first impression, Loowa seems to be a site similar to Who Are You (TechCrunch’s Review) which allows anyone to associate their email address to basic information and a photo. However, Loowa is much more providing users with a complete and customizable profile. You can look at it as a simplified and cleaned up version of MySpace.

One interesting tidbit that Mashable had mentioned is that the creator, Scott Fitzhugh, actually launched Loowa on Youtube (watch the video). In Scott’s case, this is a great move because he not only creates products, but runs a popular video blog bringing around 40,000 views to his video in 10 days. I think he’s on to something. Anyways, let’s take a look at what Loowa has to offer.

While Loowa may not be as feature packed as other social networking sites, it appears to be off to a great start. Once registering with your email address, you will be asked to create your profile. Profiles are pretty basic and fairly customizable, allowing you to include a photograph, name, and information about yourself as well as HTML, CSS, and other objects (widgets and videos). Any user that comes across your profile can then friend you, browse photos that you have uploaded, send you messages, and leave comments on your graffiti wall, which is a small discussion area at the bottom of all profiles. Viewing Scott’s profile also shows more functionality coming soon including blogging, linkbacks, topic based discussions, content flagging, and more.

Loowa also has a fun section inspired by Digg Spy called, The Loowa Spy. The Loowa Spy is something that I haven’t seen in a social networking site of this nature before. The page updates each second displaying the latest activity on Loowa, including profile views, commenting, and photo viewing. While the spy section is just a small part of Loowa, it’s fun to browse to every now and then and helps with finding other Loowa users to possibly meet.

All in all, I feel Loowa is a well crafted and simple social network. It’s certainly no MySpace functionality wise, but it’s easy and fun to use and seems to be off to a pretty decent start. Users can connect with friends, create customized profiles, upload photos, and message eachother with more features coming soon.

Lastly, feel free to check out my Loowa profile. If you create an account, don’t be shy and leave a message!