MySpace is proof that traffic just isn't enough anymore. Rupert Murdoch is apparently beside himself because MySpace has hundreds of millions of users, and ridiculously high monthly traffic--yet News
Corp. has only been able to sell a few lousy banner ads. "That is the least profitable way to advertise as a Web site. You're not able to charge a whole lot of money," Steve Mansfield, CEO of startup
PreFound.com, tells InternetNews.com. Mansfield, a social search marketing executive, thinks MySpace could start offering "social search," which means more than selling sponsored links on a social
network's search engine. Social search refers to items on a social network that have been "tagged" by its users. Tags are one-liner keywords, like "soccer," "NFL," or "baseball." Add the demographic
data to a database of tagged Web pages, and Mansfield says you would have "hyper-relevant" search results unique to each user. No word yet on how to transform data into commerce-related search
revenue.
Read the whole story at Internet News »