ProfileLinker Launches Social Networking Aggregation Service

Social Network Users Now Have Centralized Page to Manage Their Profiles and Discover New Networks

WebKnowHow
Thursday, January 4, 2007; 07:23 AM

ProfileLinker today announced the launch of its service that gives Internet users the ability to aggregate their social network profiles on one centralized web page. The free service, currently in beta, supports over 70 social networks, including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Photobucket, Blogger, Xanga, YouTube and others, and gives users the ability to search over 250 million profiles to add friends, family, colleagues and fellow enthusiasts.

“ProfileLinker solves an issue that active social network users face everyday – the extensive amount of time it takes to check, change, update and manage multiple social network profiles,” says Alix Holder, co-founder of ProfileLinker. “We see ourselves as a My Yahoo! for social networking that can help supplement and drive traffic to existing networks, both mainstream and niche, by encouraging activity and repeat visits. Along with our partnership with Photobucket, we look forward to further discussions with other potential partners.”

With an estimated 173 million social network users in the U.S., research is showing significant profile crossover across the most popular networks. In a September 2006 report, comScore Media Metrix estimated that among the top social networking sites (YouTube, Facebook, The SixApart Network of blogging sites, Xanga, Hi5, Bebo, Friendster and Piczo) at least 51 percent of users in each of those communities are also MySpace users. In the case of Piczo, there is a 68 percent crossover of users. Another comScore Media Metrix report from July 2006 shows MySpace, Facebook and Bebo’s communities growing at rates of 157 percent, 117 percent and 85 percent, respectively, from the previous July.

ProfileLinker saves people both time and energy by providing a single page that alerts them to updates across all their profiles, whether it is a new message, uploaded video or changes to a friend’s contact details. Once notified of a change, a user then links to the respective social networking site for more details or to view messages.

For users that want to show off their multiple profiles and receive more attention, ProfileLinker’s Portable Profile feature gives the ability to bring a graphical, interactive mini profile wherever they go, such as other social networks, blogs, message boards, or personal web sites. Further, ProfileLinker’s dynamic format helps people discover new social networks as their interests change or they grow older. The platform also accepts user suggestions of networks to support.

To use ProfileLinker, users simply need to go to http://www.profilelinker.com, sign up for an account and then provide their username for each social network they currently use. ProfileLinker then pulls the profiles into a single Web page for easy management. Users never reveal to ProfileLinker information they do not choose to disclose or that is not already publicly available.

About ProfileLinker

Boston-based ProfileLinker is a social networking aggregation service that simplifies the daily management of multiple profiles. Currently backed by angel funding, the company’s founders – Alix Holder, Brian Dixon, Tariq Seifuddin, and Craig Dixon – bring to ProfileLinker a diverse and balanced background, including degrees in business, computer engineering, computer information systems, marketing and finance. Already recognized as a high-potential business, the team took second-place at last April’s InnovationFest, an annual open forum of business plan presentations held by Northeastern University.