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Social Network Aggregators On Rise

  • Ad Age, Monday, June 18, 2007 10:45 AM
Social networks are now being affected by competition from aggregators. Sound familiar? The aggregation threat always seems to loom over Web content providers, and now, niche social networks are already being linked together through a series of startup aggregators.

MyLifeBrand, ProfileLinker, Open ID, OtherEgo and Profilatic are all out to simplify the social-networking experience--both for consumers and marketers, which would rather make one big-buy at the same place to reach specified consumers. MySpace and Facebook aside (which tend to deliver reliable traffic) there are hundreds of social networks on the Web involved in the revolving door of "who's hot/who's not."

Moreover, sites like MyLifeBrand help consumers to create a single persona that branches out to these other social networks, so users can get to know about their interests by clicking through to their profiles on niche networks. Aggregators place smaller social networks in a quandary: Do they drive traffic or steal it away from my site? Either way, social network aggregation is nascent, and most of these sites still feel underdeveloped.

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