Not wanting to be left out of the social network race, Yahoo! has been previewing a new service called “Mash“.
Yahoo!’s previous attempt at a social network, “Yahoo! 360“, was based around Yahoo! identities so didn’t grab a huge hold in the mainstream – it will be interesting to see what’s on offer this time to make “Mash” a success. Amongst other rumours, features such as starting profiles for your friends have been mentioned, while others have noted a visual resemblance to Bebo.
The big issues facing new social networks include finding their most suited demographic, and for a company like Yahoo!, ensuring that a new social network fits in with its brand proposition. The big three, MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, as well as YouTube (owned by Google) have really started to identify who they are aiming at and have built on on their individual strengths. The mission for a new social network like Mash is all about finding its niche.
[...] Since emerging as one of the great pillars of the first generation of web brands, Yahoo! has been constantly chasing Google, both in terms of search traffic, and strategic acquisitions. At one time or another Yahoo! was reportedly looking to acquire Web 2.0 upstarts - Facebook, YouTube and MySpace, but failed on all three accounts, although it did pick up photo sharing site Flickr. Its attempts to go it alone in the social networking space have lacked mainstream penetration, while eBay’s dominance in online auctions forced the firm’s “Yahoo! Auctions” to close in the middle of last year. [...]
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