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WTF Alert! - Yahoo Kickstart Launches
Written by Allen Stern - November 5, 2007
Last night there were reports about Yahoo launching an exciting new tool for students and alumni. Named Kickstart the idea is basically a "connection" source for those looking for a job, hiring or just keeping in touch. With that said, I am bringing out the WTF ALERT.
Someone please help me understand the purpose for this site. It's a direct competitor to LinkedIn. And it has less functionality which sometimes could be beneficial but not in this case. You create a resume and then "find" others that are associated with the school or companies you have been a part of. But that's it. No groups. No invites, just search and friend.
Mike Arrington appears to really like the service and notes, "What I liked about the service when I saw a demo last week was the possibility to find a deep database of individuals that went to the same schools that I did." Mike - can't you do this on LinkedIn?
Barry Schwartz at SearchEngineLand has a screen-by-screen walkthrough of the sign-in process. No idea why but heck I got a chuckle out of it :)
NY Nate wonders WTF he is supposed to do after signing in. And Charlie O’Donnell brings the house down with 5 reasons Kickstart won't start.
Had Yahoo been smart, they would have approached say the Big Ten or the ACC and signed each school up. This way a base of users would have already been in the program. Instead searching on my MBA school provided me with 2 results and my undergrad provided me with zero. Compare that to LinkedIn where hundreds of connections could be made. Their top 10 speaks mainly to making connections and that's a great idea but what good is it if no one is there?
Not to be completely negative on Kickstart - if they tied it into Yahoo user accounts and allowed for easy export, there could be some potential. But alone I just can't picture this working. Is this Yahoo's spaghetti marketing strategy?
At the bottom of the Kickstart page it says "This is Yahoo!" If this is Yahoo, I am scared for their survival. I am the biggest Yahoo supporter since day 1 but lately the company hasn't shown any innovation and sadly Kickstart is more non-innovation cloning. C'mon Yang get it together pal!
COMMENTS - Add New Comment
Kickstart seems a lot more geared towards the college scene (with a find a job/connect with alumni focus) than LinkedIn. I see Kickstart as a basic mashup of Facebook and LinkedIn (at least in concept).
Nonetheless, it has no fees (which is a plus over LinkedIn) and it has the power to flex the absolutely massive Yahoo userbase.
@Michael: Yes, I've the same perception as well. Sort of like LinkedIn/Facebook but without the fees and of course, without the so-called "non-professional" facebook pokes and wall. With Yahoo's user base, they shouldn't have any issue with getting users to "kickstart" but it's really a surprise that the features that they are offering now, with the number of engineers and people working on this for what.. more than 6 mths? Looks like a badly executed attempt to try to enter this space.
@Michael: Yes, I've the same perception as well. Sort of like LinkedIn/Facebook but without the fees and of course, without the so-called "non-professional" facebook pokes and wall. With Yahoo's user base, they shouldn't have any issue with getting users to "kickstart" but it's really a surprise that the features that they are offering now, with the number of engineers and people working on this for what.. more than 6 mths? Looks like a badly executed attempt to try to enter this space.
Allen (and Alred),
Kickstart was launched by my group at Yahoo - Advanced Products - our goal is to build things super quickly (read: just a few months), with a small team (read: less than 6 ppl total) and get them out quickly.
This preview release of Kickstart is really about building the network. as you said, there's not that many people on it yet, and we're spending the next few months building the network. It's hard here at Yahoo that even on day 1 people know about our products and expect them to be perfect - can you remember the first day that linked in started or facebook?
Anyway, we know that we have a lot to do: build the network and make the site much more useful. But I'd rather launch this now and improve it every week than sit on it until its perfect.
Your suggestion about the ACC or Big 10 is spot on. And we did reach out to schools. As you can guess, they move more slowly then we do, so we launched first before they could commit.
Last point: we are offering $25,000 to the US school that has the most alumni signed up by the end of the year. So I'd love it if you'd pass the word on - if nothing else, at least your alma mater can get some bucks...
I don't see how this much better than a site like onlyalumni.com or other forums like that?