A hearty congrats to the Praized Media team for the launch of their new local social media platform and web services.  It’s an ambitious and interesting plan that I’ve checked into from time to time as Sebastien, Harry and Sylvan went from concept to launch.

A couple of concepts underlying Praized will be very interesting to watch…

1. It’s a bet that the blog universe will engage their “local voice” - Praized understands the pro blogger universe very well, and is providing tools for helping bloggers engage with their “tribes” (& expand site usage). Creating a scaled model of blogger-tribe engagement around local businesses will require creativity and real social elbow grease.
2. The local voting space is getting crowded; however, it’s still pretty rudimentary among the two key partners sites - Yellowbook and YPG Canada.  This model, over time, can help fill this void; it looks like the content collected on the Praized Network will be aggregated and distributed back to the YP sites.
3. The Facebook app is well done, from the cursory play time I took on it. Building an audience on FB today is tough, and Loladex and Yelp are already there.
4. The API play will be interesting - conventional wisdom is pointing everyone into this model, but this will be one of the first “true local social” media engines who will likely take this seriously.  These guys are hardcore Web 2.0 types.

Good luck to the team, it’s nice to see some new innovation choosing to align and address the gaps and opportunities in partnering with YP publishers.

Posted by Perry on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 9:33 am.