Publishing firm Hachette Filipacchi has launched a new social networking service, which includes a social bookmarking tool, whatever that is, to go alongside its teen magazine Sugar. They plan to release widgets that integrate the Sugar networking service with MySpace and Bebo.
Confirming the launch of Sugarscape.com, Hachette Filipacchi UK Digital Director, Dave Killeen told Press Gazette: "Sugar readers use the web extensively. We're making the most of that by letting our readers tell each other what they find most interesting online. The end result will be a social sushi-belt of pointers to and comments on the most popular content from around the web". Hmm, a social sushi-belt, interesting.
On the decision to integrate the service with other social networking platforms, Killeen continued: "It's very much about slicing and dicing your brand and putting it in various places across the web rather than just building one destination site. With this audience in particular, we really have to be everywhere and anywhere, really. So we're building various web apps that don't just sit on Sugarscape, but right around the web".
The new online service will co-exist with the teen mag's existing editorial led website at http://www.sugarmagazine.co.uk.