Yahoo recently began beta testing Mash, the company’s experimental social networking web site that will allow Yahoo users to share information with one another.  Mash is Yahoo’s latest attempt at social networking after failing with Yahoo 360 and its bid to purchase Facebook.

Yahoo aims to implement features that will differentiate Mash from other services, but exact details remain unknown.  One perk already known is the ability for users to edit profiles that belong to their friends. I can see the value of possibly editing a profile if it’s so you can segment your friends or business aquaintences, but personally, I were Yahoo, I’d try harder to buy soemthing that is more established. Look at how 360 bombed..

Yahoo started inviting a small number of testers to the service late last week.  Users who have not been invited to the service are unable to view the site, however; the head of the Mash team has a public blog which details the current status of the project.

I came across a company that seems to know where social networking needs to go. The company is called Neighborhood America, Neighborhood America provides enterprise-level social networking solutions to media, business and government customers. That is where social networking can best be utilized. Right now, the landscape is littered with wanna-be’s and variations of the Myspace and Facebook model. 

Think about it. How do they make money? Through Ad dollars, and that’s it. These do serve a “social” function, but purely from a social standpoint.

 What Neighborhood America strives to do, is enable and empower companies and organizations to create better lines of communication and a better exchange of ideas and resources to best achieve enterprise goals, expectations, and deliverables. Now that is a solid business objective that best utilizes the power of social networking. Plus it makes money. Isn’t that what we are all trying to do? Yahoo Mash has a big mountain to climb. Maybe they should call Neigborhood America?