A Kickstart Is What Yahoo! Needs

It failed at landing Facebook last year, so it may as well create its own version. Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) is testing out the potential for a new campus-driven social networking site, according to a CNET blog entry from last night.

Just as Facebook is reaching out to wider audiences by pandering to more than just the closed communities of colleges, high schools, and corporations, other companies are moving in to specialize on the ".edu" set. If even Playboy (NYSE: PLA) is giving it a shot with this month's launch of Playboy U, why not Yahoo!?

Yahoo! Kickstart isn't your typical social-networking hub of unchecked youthful enthusiasm and the occasional indiscretion. You won't find the gaudy templates common on News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace, and you're unlikely to find snapshots of embarrassing pranks at the latest fraternity kegger like you would on Facebook.

Instead, Kickstart is a closer match to LinkedIn, the popular social-networking site where white-collar professionals mingle as they smoke out potential job opportunities. It makes sense. Yahoo! already runs HotJobs.com, a popular workplace-listings website that is up there with other job boards like CareerBuilder, Monster (Nasdaq: MNST), and Dice (NYSE: DHX). It's only natural for it to give an employment recruiting site a stickier spin.

Having college students connect with former graduates at major corporations is reasonable. It's often the key to landing a promising job in the real world. However, one has to wonder if a social-networking site can succeed if it becomes a revolving door of upperclassmen who may not necessarily want to step into mentoring shoes after they get hired. Then again, LinkedIn seems to be attracting a lot of attention lately with IPO rumors. As long as Kickstart is able to differentiate itself from LinkedIn -- or United Online's (Nasdaq: UNTD) Classmates.com, for that matter -- it may be the birth of a popular destination that just happens to cater to the juicy demographic of college-educated upperclassmen. And that demographic has a way of making advertisers feel like a chocoholic at Willy Wonka's factory.

It may not work. It may not even launch. Still, you've got to like that Yahoo! is willing to take chances. For shareholders who have suffered through the past few moribund quarters (review its latest quarter) at the company, a good Kickstart would come in handy.

Read up on what some of the established Kickstart rivals are up to:

• IPO, Get to Know Your Classmates
• Where's the Money, Bunny?
• Getting LinkedIn to the Next Hot IPO

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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is starting to realize why more people on Facebook and MySpace aren't putting up their resumes. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.