So there is a pretty new service called Nabbr out in Web 2.0. If it takes off, tt is really set to be the next generation amalgamation of social networking and communal topic sharing. Nabbr has all the social pieces of MySpace and Blogging, along with the social link sharing of del.icio.us, and the community ratings of Digg. The interface is interesting as you can tell it is targeted to the youth Web 2.0 market.Okay, the general idea for the consumer is you make a list of items or ideas you enjoy. You create this list (aka hotlist) of your favorite stuff and you can share this list with friends via MySpace or your blog platform. I do believe it is really targeted at the 12 to 24 year old crowd that is really driven off of brands and trends.
I truly like the concept as it actually connects the dots between the social networking world and the link ranking/content sharing. It is one of the better models I have seen that has a genuine opportunity to be monetized beyond just a pure advertising play. For example, Nabbr can suggest similar products and services (music, movies, etc…) that someone might like based on their interests. So it extends the Amazon suggested product concept to all products and services. It takes it a step further by allowing friends to be tied in to the list of items, thus really providing the power of six degrees.
The service also has a great potential for becoming a bigger player because of their strategy to go after the MySpace and Blog world. Look at Photobucket for example, they have about 45% market share of the photo sharing market, primarily based on the MySpace tie-in.
From their website they talk about tracking cool new things…
If you like someone else’s style, click on “Add To Watchlist”, and you’ll automatically be kept up to date with what that person adds to their Hotlist. You can then see what’s popular amongst the people you care about. If you have an RSS reader, keeping track of your friends’ new stuff is much easier because you can subscribe directly to a real-time RSS feed of each of their hotlists.
Imagine the power of this as a network of hotlists is created. It carries the social aspect (including social pressure) along with the brand value. What I mean is the ability to align with trends and fads to push out/market your products.I work with middle school kids as a youth advisor and I am always amazed by how quickly trends come up and are driven by these kids. This includes types of music, television shows, consumer products, electronics, etc... The fad (for lack of a better term) was started somewhere and was spread in an exponential manner. Being with middle school kids every week does give me early insights, but this technology is another outlet to push these out to market and accelerate the growth.
The other marketing aspect I like about it is the ability for brands to track their exposure in the market (by demo) on the way up and on the way down. Because of my data background I see hundreds of applications for this data in the market. I think Nabbr is already sitting on a goldmine of information that I would start taking out to the record companies, CPG brands, and big apparel players. There are many tactical things that can come out of a service like this.
Now, the biggest issue these guys have is they are growing quickly, but the adoption is still low. The month over month growth is amazing, but they need exponential growth for this thing to be real. The other problem is the catalog is going to be huge, it is like an ebay, amazon, imdb, itunes, etc... catalog all in one. The service relies on users to build the database, this is going to be the hard part.
Check it out: nabbr.com
