MOTHERCARE will this week launch Gurgle.com – a social networking site for parents.

The website, created in partnership with MediaBurn, the social-networking and digital-marketing company, will include more than 1,000 articles, 52 tutorial videos, an online ovulation calendar and a baby-naming search engine.

It will allow mothers to contact others in their area or beyond, either at the same stage of pregnancy or stages of a child’s development. There will also be a question-and-answer facility so parents can give each other advice and receive feedback from resident experts working for the Gurgle site.

Mothercare, which last week posted a 3.4% rise in like-for-like UK sales, hopes the site will boost sales at its retail website as well as serve its customers and other web users.

Elsewhere, a social-networking site aimed at children that is billed as a cross between Facebook and “Tamagotchi” pets launches this month.

Moshimonsters.com will allow children to create monster characters that they then adopt and interact with.

The company behind the site, which has been two years in development, is Mind Candy, an online games designer. It believes such sites for children will take off in Britain in a big way, having proved successful in America.

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