Future of Media? Not Social Networking.

Well another social networking site bit the dust today as “Tickle” a site owned by Monster.com is shutting down. Tickle was a social networking and advice site that offered free tests to users – sort of a permission marketing concept. The news follows other recent failed attempts by Conde Nast and Verizon as reported in a recent article in Silicon Alley Insider.

Cisco EOS Plan Targets the Media

Networking giant details first product of its push to help media companies connect with customers

Cisco will introduce next year its Entertainment Operating System (EOS), a platform for delivering multimedia content to online communities.

EOS will be the first major product of Cisco’s push into helping media companies connect with their customers. It will combine a delivery system, a social networking platform, and a set of tools to help consumers find the content they want, said Dan Scheinman, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s media solutions group. It will go on sale in 2008, he said.

Two online fan communities, run by the National Hockey League and the NASCAR auto-racing organization, are using elements of EOS today, Scheinman said. NHL Connect, launched last year and uses technology from social networking company Five Across, which Cisco acquired in February.

Content providers like the sports leagues have large and loyal fan bases but don’t know how to enrich the fan experience or get them to spend more time on their sites, he said. EOS will be a standardized solution for doing that.

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