Comments on: WTF Alert! – Yahoo Kickstart Launches

By: Michael Wales

Michael Wales — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t see how this much better than a site like onlyalumni.com or other forums like that?

By: Scott G

Scott G — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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…

By: Alfred Toh

Alfred Toh — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@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.

By: Alfred Toh

Alfred Toh — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000