Over the weekend, Paul mentioned the current state of Eons, which seemed rather dismal (yet still enough to get an article in The New York Times, apparently to Paul's dismay). But even after a substantially painful round of layoffs and an increasingly negative stigma to shake, the social network for baby boomers is announcing two major changes that will be taking place at the Eons camp.
First up, a round of updates to the Eons site. The changes on the site aren't really much in the way of revamping all of Eons, but they do tweak the site in such a way that users can more immediately recognize the options that they have on Eons, and a refocus on the people and their user-generated content that's found throughout the site.
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For instance, the old Eons site greets you with a landing page that doesn't make it immediately clear that you've arrived at an online social network. The tabs along the top of the page broke the site u into categories like "Love" and "Money." This is actually a trend I noticed across several networks for boomers, as there was a clear effort to differentiate sites for the more mature crowds from the sites made for teens.
Understandable, but looking at the new Eons site, there is a distinct focus on the social networking capabilities of the site, along with tabs that you're more likely to see on your average social network. This allows Eons and the users to leverage the content Eons has built up in the past two years, for search, the sharing of knowledge, media and ideas, and the facilitation of connections across the site's members.
As part of this overall refocusing effort, Eons has also gotten rid of a certain notable aspect of its site. When Eons launched back in 2006, the site's founder Jeff Taylor (who also founded Monster.com) made sure to let everyone know about the death updates that users could receive as part of the service. These Eons Obits were somewhat morbid features for getting the buzz going about the site, but they just didn't make the cut for staying in the redesigned Eons network.
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That's because it's actually being spun into its own site, called Tributes.com.
There are several sites out there that lend a network for grieving, immortalizing loved ones that have passed away, and for finding support and resources when dealing with death, so as the space grows, so too does the new Tributes site. According to Elaine Haney, President of Eons, the company is looking to provide an online resource that's usable by all age groups, not just boomers, and has anticipated the spin off for some time, having acquired the domain name early on in Eons' existence. It's even received strategic investment from Dow Jones, which will also be seeking additional ways in which to help Tributes develop, and possibly become a part of the site.
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