Yahoo (YHOO) has initiated a new plan that entails building niche Web sites around 100 entertainment "brands."
The purpose, according to Vince Broady, head of games, entertainment and youth at Yahoo, “We don’t connect the dots for our users around those brands. Brand Universe is designed to fix that problem. What we are really trying to do is create environments where fans of brands can hang out when they are online.”
Broady added that interacting within the Yahoo properties hasn't always been intuitive or content easy to find.
The overall strategy is to create sites based upon individual TV shows, movies, games, bands and other types of interesting entertainment.
The Brand Universe sites will use an ad-supported model and is looking at different ways it can share revenue with the owners of the brands. Yahoo will also be able to measure how attractive the brands are across its new network and share the data with the owners.
If they do this right it will work great. To me it's one of the answers to search irrelevance when seeking out very specific interests on the web.
The key to it succeeding really great will be the depth of how far they take the specific niche. If it's targeted, but not very deep, it could be result in failure from having the right idea, but not the right exection. Take it deep and they could develop a strong following of loyal fans across many brands. It has a lot of potential.
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