Yahoo sneaks into social networking

Yahoo has launched a social networking service which it claims will fill a gap between LinkedIn and Facebook.

Kickstart is designed to link recent university graduates with prospective employers.

Users will create profiles with college information, photos and other personal data which can be browsed by industry professionals and potential employers.

If the concept sounds familiar, it is because two well-known networking sites already provide the same service.

Facebook, the current social networking king with a valuation of $14bn, connects users in much the same way, bunching together those who attended the same university or have the same employer.

On the professional side, LinkedIn is popular with older professionals seeking to build and maintain their networks of connections, linking users with former colleagues, clients and business partners.

The aim of Kickstart is to fill a void between these two groups, targeting people who wish to move beyond Facebook, but have not yet built the business networks typical of LinkedIn users.

"College students are amazingly well networked on Facebook, but that network is about connecting with friends and is more appropriate for fun," said Scott Gatz, senior director of advanced products at Yahoo, in a blog entry.

"In fact many students we talked to expressed frustration that 'old folks' were coming onto Facebook and forcing them to lock down their profiles or - worse yet - clean up their act."