Minerals.net

Minerals.net was started in 1996 by Hershel Friedman, as an interactive and educational guide to rocks, minerals, and gemstones. It was one of the first of its kind providing detailed information of these topics in an interactive setting. Minerals.net contains research pages of hundreds of minerals, indexed and categorized, as well as various documents on mineral topics. The site had been growing steadily since its inception, and had increased in search engine rankings to become one of the top sites under both keywords "minerals" and "gemstones". Minerals.net currently has over 350,000 monthly visitors and is just shy of a million pageviews per month.

A determination to redesign the website and update it was initiated in 2007 after several years of inactivity. Hershel partnered with Joseph Haas to redevelop the site with a new, interactive format, as well as revamp the existing content and add new material. In January 2014, Minerals.net was once again redesigned, with many new features added. A mobile version was launched in December 2014.

Our goal is to continue providing information in an interactive and user-friendly form. We hope to provide useful educational information on all well-known minerals and gemstones, as well as other less-known favorites of the author. We try to keep the information simple enough for learning students and novices, but at the same time provide exhaustive research and details for enthusiasts and experts. We hope to always provide this site as a free online service, and maintain our costs by advertising.

Hershel Friedman has been collecting minerals since he was a young child. His knowledge of minerals and gemstones was gained from reading and researching, and he has many years of field experience. Hershel graduated from Ramapo College of New Jersey with a bachelors in Information Systems. He is the President and founder of Radial Web, a website design and development firm in the New York metro area. Hershel started Minerals.net as a way to catalog the specimens in his own collection. This spread to the idea of providing extensive information and placing it online for public education.

>> View Hershel Friedman's Bio

Information on this website is the copyright of Hershel Friedman (or of others, and used with their permission). Use of any material on this website for educational purposes does not require our permission, provided it will not be published. Most of our photos are from external sources and require copyright permission from their respected copyright holders. Use of the information for any other purpose will require our explicit permission from Hershel Friedman, the copyright holder.
The material on this website was created for use as a reference, for educational use, and for home use. Distribution, alteration, or usage in a commercial manner is a violation of the copyright laws and is prohibited. To obtain permission for usage, you must contact Hershel Friedman, the copyright holder.

We greatly appreciate those who report errors, misspelled words, broken links, and any incomplete or incorrect information. To report an error, please use our contact form.

Website Founder and Designer
Hershel Friedman

Content Research and Upkeep
Hershel Friedman

Senior Developer
Joseph Haas

Editor
Herman Friedman and Dr. Morris Schulgasser

Special Thanks to:

Avigael Friedman - For your constant support.
Henry Oberman - For assistance with gemstone content and jewelry photos.
Svetlana Zelikovich - For exceptional design and printwork.
Kamran Paracha - For his dedicated and effective web programming.
John Betts - For providing outstanding mineral images.
Ron Nash - For the gemstone photos and gemstone resources.
Marc Sarosi - For the gemstone photos.

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Special Thanks to:
Harriet Friedman, David Koegel, Mordy Gilden, Jolyon Ralph, Allan W. Eckert, Eric Stanchich, and Kevin Canning.

Thanks to these Critequers:
Mark Kurzmann, Sol Werczberger, Robert Frankel, Donna M. Smillie, Pam Shorey, Pat Greenfield, Livia Molnar-Hamvas, Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat, Cherie Haskins, Michael Beane, Craig White, Allan W. Eckert, Sean Sharp, Koreen Corbett, Rick Harpin, Forrest Becker, Tara Steckel, Cindy Thomas, Jen Henberry, Marion Podolski, Tanya Tarshis, Lorenz Hemmelmayr, Stephen Bornchen, Manuel Moreno, and J. Roger Mitchell.