Yahoo launches another social network: Kickstart
Yahoo Inc. launched a new professional social network called Y! Kickstart yesterday aimed at helping college students take the social networking skills they perfected for fun during college and use them to launch their professional lives. Kickstart is designed to connect college students and recent graduates with alums and professionals to find jobs, internships and career advice, said Scott Gatz, Yahoo senior director of advanced products, who wrote in a blog post about Kickstart. For many college students, “submitting resumes to job sites or companies seems like a black hole,” Gatz noted. “Enter Kickstart. It’s based on the premise that everyone does have a network: the school you went to, the frat/sorority you were in, the professional/interest group you are in, the companies you interned with or worked at. Kickstart makes it easy to create and browse that kind of network.”
The site now is in a “preview” release, Yahoo noted, with the company now mainly focused on getting alumni and professionals to join. The U.S. college with the most alumni signed up on Kickstart will get a $25,000 donation to their alumni program, Gatz added. Although this project may have some potential and benefit for its users, I still don’t get the whole hype about social networks. What’s wrong with ol’ school hanging out and meeting new people in the real life?
Source: Computerworld
Comments(9)
Ugh, more internet social networks. Great. Still, this one might be a bit better than the rest…
I, for one, welcome our new intarweb social networks overlords! I mean, look at the potential for meritocracy, sycophantic social engineering and general social stratification. I’m lovin’ it!
Eh… Anybody got a spare Sarcasm-O-meter lying around? Think I blew mine to high heaven…
isn’t everyone using facebook already?
believe it or not, companies are still trying to launch and plan social networks everyday. it’s uncanny.
everyone wants to jump on myspace’s model, but they aren’t realizing that myspace was built for free, by college kids with lots of time to work on it, and nobody breathing down their neck with deadlines.
facebook is more than enuf 4 me..
“Enter Kickstart. It’s based on the premise that everyone does have a network: the school you went to, the frat/sorority you were in, the professional/interest group you are in, the companies you interned with or worked at. Kickstart makes it easy to create and browse that kind of network.”
What Elitest Cack.
Yahoo was one of the first sites i joined when i first went online.
They have aged pretty badly
I feel like their trying desperately to catch up.
Yes, seems like yahoo is now just realizing it would be a good idea to add to their reputation. but now it’s useless because sites like facebook almost do the same thing.
What’s wrong with ol’ school hanging out and meeting new people in the real life?
Ever tried to meet someone in real life when you live in LA and they live in NY ?
Social networking sites are a good idea and they can save people a lot of money/time. You could get hired and find a place to live instead of packing up your stuff and hoping for the best when moving to a new city like in the old days.
Especially in a large country like the USA, its not like Holland where you can drive from AMS to Brussels in 2-3 hours. It takes 2-3 DAYS to get from LA to NY by car.
Social networking is a good idea, stop knocking it.