Steve Greenbaum is one of the founders of genkvetch.com, a social networking site for seniors. The Web site aims to attract older computer users who are interested in connecting with others on the Web.

MIAMI — Marilyn Carroll used to watch her 28-year-old daughter spend hours on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. So she decided to join the social networking scene, too — but on a site geared exclusively to her interests.

Carroll, 61, and husband Mel, part-time residents of Surfside, Fla., created a social networking site with their friend, Steve Greenbaum of Aventura, Fla. Using big fonts, easy instructions, a section for jokes and news items for seniors, Genkvetch.com aims to attract older computer users who are interested in connecting with others on the Web.

"I'm a people person and I wanted to meet people," says Carroll, a retired school guidance counselor. "But I also wanted a site for people 50 on up to connect. So many of the others are for the young people."

Genkvetch.com, which Carroll figures has a few thousand visitors a month, joins the growing ranks of senior sites — seniorpeoplemeet.com, seniorocity.com, seniorenquirer.com, eons.com and tbd.com, to name just a few — that want to capture the baby boomer audience and its older brethren. They're doing it by using good old-fashioned marketing techniques: news, products and connections tailored for people who, as Carroll puts it, "can remember LPs and rotary phones."

Even powerhouse advocacy group AARP has gotten into the social networking scene, launching a channel on its Web site more than a year ago.

"Our first foray was with message boards and chat rooms and we've had those for a while," says Nataki Clarke, director of online marketing for AARP. "But there was a recognition that we needed more."

In July alone, the AARP site had 500,000 visitors and about 3 million page views, exceeding the organization's expectations.

Of course, young users still constitute the overwhelming majority of social networkers, but the older generation is warming to the possibilities of connecting on the net. According to Hitwise, an online measurement company, 8.2 percent of adults 55 and older have joined online networks. And those numbers are growing. The percentage of U.S. visits in a four-week period ending on June 9 increased 55 percent from two years ago.

Facebook and MySpace remain the most popular sites, followed by AOL Community, Classmates.com and MyLife.com. But social networking observers say it won't be long before the senior set moves on to sites that cater specifically to their interests, a natural fragmentation in the evolution of the Web.

At tbd.com, users can sign on for "Boot Camps," free workshops on subjects such as writing or dating. Users not only get advice, they can also interact with each other. Robin Wolaner, founder and CEO of tbd.com, started Parenting magazine back in 1985 and now calls tbd.com a "post-parenting option." Most tbd.com users are in their 40s and 50s.

From Wolaner: "Tbd is like a neighborhood barbecue. You might not know the people at the party, but it's fun, safe and filled with people like you. Our members may also have Facebook accounts — not so much MySpace — but they find tbd more welcoming."

Sandra Gewirtz, 66, is typical of older social networkers. Her grandchildren begged her to join Facebook, but she visits genkvetch.com instead because it has topics of interest to her.

"It's an excellent site and very easy to use, so I recommend it to my friends," says Gewirtz of Surfside. "It's like a come-together place for people like me because it has a lot of things I like, a good living section and good reviews. You can't find that on Facebook."

While teens use social networking sites to plan parties and check in with friends, older networkers want to do more than set up a profile and leave a comment on a wall. They want to find new friends who share similar interests.

"We're finding out that users are more interested in, 'How can I talk to people who are going through the same things I am or are interested in the same topics I am,' than just posting some general comment," says Clarke of AARP. "I think it's a natural progression. Boomers and seniors first joined to see what their kids and grandkids were doing online, but now they want to communicate with other like-minded people."

"What makes us different" from the bigger and better-known social networking sites, Greenbaum adds, "is that we have interesting content. We want to be more relevant than just having an instant upd