WebProNews

The ancient question about the chicken or the egg coming first applies to Yahoo's latest service, a college student and alumni social networking site called Kickstart. Give Yahoo credit for realizing this, as their Kickstart service opens for business. They are offering a $25,000 prize to the alumni association that gets the most alums signed up by the end of 2007.

They have a sound idea for creating yet another social networking site, in that it's not as much about socializing as it is about connecting students with the people who might be able to help them into a job after college.

Yahoo calls Kickstart a preview release, their first step in building the community. "You’ll notice that, for now, the site is streamlined towards setting up profiles and basic connections and messaging," noted the Yodel Anecdotal blog.

People can sign up with a Yahoo account, create a Kickstart profile, and connect with others on the site. Kickstart lets people identify themselves by the colleges they have attended, and the affiliations and companies that are part of their lives.

Yahoo positioned Kickstart as somewhere between options they consider "too tailored towards seasoned professionals or too geared towards staying in touch with friends." The problem Kickstart faces is those alternatives have the members that Kickstart needs, and they may be comfortable enough not to want to join another network.