FOUNDED in March this year by entrepreneur Paul Budnitz, Ello.co was originally only intended for Budnitz and his buddies, but they opened it up in August, on an invite-only basis.

The site's popularity soared last month when Facebook started cracking down on users who weren't signed up with their real name - in particular drag artists who use their stage names - and hundreds of people from the LGBTQ community flocked to Ello, where pseudonyms are allowed.

They won't disclose a figure for total active users, but Ello rep Rachel Fukaya told me last week that business is booming: "We've been receiving between 40-50K user invite requests an hour."

So what's it like? Featuring a simple, clean black and white interface, the site uses the Twitter-style @yourname convention but is visually more like Instagram. As well as promising no adverts ever, Ello aims to deliver a clutter-free feed, asking you to categorize the pages you follow as 'friends' or 'noise', with separate feeds for each, meaning you can quickly filter out the fodder.

On the other hand, some controls aren't as tight as Facebook's. There is currently no way to block unwanted followers, but "our main priority right now is amping up privacy features", says Fukaya.

With no ad revenue, how will the social site survive? Initial funding came from a venture capital firm, but in future, users will have the option to purchase special features - for example, being able to control several Ello accounts from one login - for one or two dollars.

Critics warn, however, that this micro-payments system could be off-putting: "Over all the other social media experiences from Whatsapp to Instagram to Pinterest - the reason they work is because they're free," James McQuivey, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester, told the BBC.

But Ello insists that's not the case: "We're not worried," Fukaya says. "Our beta users have been writing in by the thousands requesting features that they would pay for."

Should Facebook be shaking in its digital boots then? Well, Ello is clearly enjoying a major surge in sign-ups, but without any concrete data, it's hard to tell whether these will translate into active users, and whether they'll stick around. It's good to know there's an ad-free, pseudonym-friendly social media option out there, but is that enough to lure 1.32 billion Facebookers? Probably not.

TOP 10 THREATS

She may be the nation's sweetheart but she's also a digital danger: Cheryl Cole has been named the "most dangerous" celebrity in the UK in terms of internet searches that lead to spam, viruses, 'phishing' scams and other malware. Highlighting the importance of having up-to-date anti-virus software installed, security firm McAfee has released a chart of the top 10 celeb threats, which is mostly made up of music stars including Jessie J, Ellie Goulding and Harry Styles. But since she's now going by her married name, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, who knows whether the X Factor judge will still be topping the chart this time next year.

REDDIT AND WEEP

Since the dawn of the internet, errant employees have been getting caught out on social media slating their bosses or playing hooky, but last week one former Reddit worker was on the receiving end of a very public dressing down. David Ehrmann, previously on admin at the social news site, wrote - on a Reddit forum no less - that he believed he had been fired because he'd raised concerns about company donations to an unnamed charity. Sixteen hours later, Reddit's CEO had responded with a lengthy post explaining why Ehrmann had been sacked, citing primarily "incompetence and not getting much work done". A wince-inducing reminder, if ever one was needed, of the dangers of airing your grievances online.

THE GIF THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

The selfie just got a whole lot more interesting thanks to JibJab Messages, the app that lets you take a selfie and create comical animated gifs. A spin-off of e-card creation site JibJab, with the new tool (only available on iPhone for now) you take or upload a head shot and position it on a background - say, your face as a tear dropping from Miley Cyrus's eye - add a tagline, then send your comedy gif via text message, social media or just by copying and pasting the link. The first 10 messages are free, then it's 99 cents (about 60p) for the next 10 or per month. So that's all your Christmas gifs sorted then...

BROWSING AROUND... CONQUER YOUR EMAIL INBOX

Manage your inboxes with simple swipe gestures using Mailbox app - Mailboxapp.com

Boxer app lets you send template responses to emails with one swipe - Getboxer.com

Filter out non-essential mail and messages to deal with later - Sanebox.com

Triage stacks your messages and helps you sort them as you flick through the pile - Triage.cc

Cloze analyses your social networks and prioritises messages from important people - Cloze.com

THING OF THE WEEK

Explore the Pyramids of Giza with Google Street View - tiny.cc/pyramids