Everyone wants to launch a portal this week it seems, but the Dayton Daily News effort, www.meetFred.com is so out of character it almost gives me a belly laugh.
I haven’t turned on the TV this week, or the radio (much like many of the kids who may be the target market) – but learning about the site on the front page of the DDN as a bottom of the page banner ad means someone really isn’t thinking.
According to Cox, “Fred” stands for “Friends, relatives, events, discussion” – all the things people now do on MySpace, Facebook, Tribe, CraigsList etc. The question is why would they want to do it on the DDN sponsored site.
This may be not much more than a standard install of Drupal- haven’t had time to check the code.
The other portal, OregonDistrict.com launched officially today too. This portal is a community built around the Oregon District- an odd idea for such a small area. We’ll see how well the business owners contribute to the site- because without constant new content- it will get old quick.
And with dayton.mostmetro.com opening last week- it’s as if someone put portal potion in the water supply.
All portals – all five years behind. Typical Dayton area cluelessness.
Obviously the social networking/portal space is still evolving. Based on the cover story for last week’s Business Week, there are still untapped markets for portals. http://www.businessweek.com/mediacenter/podcasts/websmart/websmart_10_05_06.htm
Whether its location or age that makes it a community that suits you, I think that people are looking to connect with others that are like-minded – and not just connect online, but also in person. Which leads to the local portal. All of these portals are different in focus and function – it will be interesting to see if they all survive.
There is some Dayton presence at Myspace, which I came across by accident via surfing into some band/music and artist sites.
I found that there really isn’t that much happening online from Dayton, though, compared to other cities. Probably more a function of size than anything else.
I’ve seen Fred, and, at first, didn’t know what to think. But this could have some potential. Lots of local people and lots of local photos. It may not be all that now, but who knows?