The big three seem to be catching up fast with the social networking movement. Yahoo looks to be on a bit of roll with the launch of its new social networking site called Kickstart. This is the second experiment by Yahoo in less than than 60 days after the launch of Yahoo Mash, which seems to be a disappointment so far.
According to Scott Gatz, senior director of Yahoo’s Advanced Products Division the site won’t really compete with Facebook because of its focus on career advancement, but isn’t exactly LinkedIn. While testing the application the first thing I read was “10 Reasons to use KICKSTART“. Those 10 reasons give an indirect message that Kickstart is essentially for recent graduates/college students who’re looking out for a job or trying to establish industry connections.
The navigation menu (I’m sure guys at Yahoo! would add basket of features here) at the top has 4 links currently: Home, My Profile, Connections, Inbox. The search functionality is comprehensive and it allows you to search by People, Colleges, Companies and Affiliations. The sign-up process is pretty simple and you can create a new college network or join an existing one if it has been created already.
My initial thoughts on Kickstart is that it looks promising. It’s a great attempt by Yahoo! to get into more niche markets, and will prove an essential tool to its targeted audience of recent college graduates. Check out Kickstart now 
