"Social Networking Is Hot, but Research Is Hotter"

I'm right in the throes of conferencing, so I won't elaborate too much on this news item, but I thought this report from Advertising Age presents a particularly ominous and interesting (especially to my thesis) summary of what market researchers are into these days. Social networking sites (think YouTube, MySpace, etc.) continue to be all the buzz amongst the e-Marketer crowd. Experts had this to say at the recent Ad Tech conference in NYC:

As Roy deSouza, CEO, Zedo, pointed out during a panel that afternoon focusing on the ubiquitous topic of Web 2.0, smaller online communities that didn't exist at this time last year are already making major impact. Social-networking hubs such as the consumer-written restaurant reviews of Yelp, and Dogster, a canine-centric version of Friendster, are helping define the new movement by staying out of their users way and letting them provide editorial content.
"It's not about the technology. It's about making the kind of site that allows users to talk with friends," Mr. deSouza said.

What will keep the sites relevant, said co-panelist Charles Buchwalter, senior VP-industry solutions at Nielsen/NetRatings, is continuously surveying users.

Read the coverage here (free for now, subscription req'd later).