Gurgle, a social network for parents launches today as a joint venture between retailer Mothercare and MediaBurn, an agency specialising in social networking sites.

The site aims to bring together expert information together with social networking tools for parents and parents-to-be. At launch i is offering about 1,000 articles, 52 exclusively commissioned tutorial videos and a number of baby and pregnancy tools. Parents register then Gurgle offers each member a personalised site with relevant articles, videos, groups, people, chat and answers based on each member’s location and the stage of their child’s development. The site’s social functionality can be tailored so mums can talk to their peers in their local area, or to others at the same stage of their pregnancy or child’s development.

That’s all very well, but although Mothercare seems to think it has stumbled upon the fact that new parents desire an online community, it’s entering the game a little late. Despite it’s Web 1.0 appearance Mumsnet is still the one to beat in this area, not to mention the plethora of other long-in-the tooth sites in the UK around this area. Gurgle is going to have to work hard to bring anything new, and if the brand is smothered all over the site like a cheap suit parents will smell a rat and click away.