for W3c validation
Big news today that Myspace and CitySearch are teaming up to create “myspace local”. I know, I know — you (and I) can’t believe I’m writing about myspace again after my a recent post. But this is big news in the local space. Here is a demo if you’re interested in digging in. Yelp has 20 million UUs and CitySearch only 25 million UUs, even though they have a 10 year head start. So, is this a bit of Yelp envy? Absolutely. However, you’ve got to ask – will this help myspace catch up to facebook in the social networking space? I have to say no on that one since it likely won’t result in many NEW users, which, to me, means its not a partnership that myspace should be spending boatloads of resources on. But, that said, I have no doubt its a partnership that will be lucrative for both parties in the long run (no idea what the rev share deal looks like). Having local business content is a natural starting point for the myspace sales team to tap into that advertiser base. All in all, good move by both companies for striking this deal.
As a side note – I just logged into citysearch with my facebook username and password. Love it. No e-mail confirmation, no captcha, no user name to remember, no hassle. There’s a 98% chance I never would have went to citysearch without their facebook connect integration. But there’s a very low barrier to adding content to their site. Anyone know what the largest sites are that have enabled facebook connect? Do you think it will be a growing trend? What does someone give up strategically by doing that? How does e-mail marketing to those users work?
