The original social network tool

You've got your Facebook-ers, your LinkedIn-sters, your MySpace-men...and a cornucopia of other social networking tools to advance your virtual social status.

But eventually, all this virtual esteem-building has to come home to root itself in reality...vis-a-vis...some face-time.

Take the much publicized potential Yahoo/Microsoft merger. These two industry titans are trying to find a way to hook-up.
At first it was a brash attempt by Microsoft to force the hand of Yahoo shareholders, thus forcing the hand of one Jerry Yang.

Jerry Yang, co-founder of "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web", where he put up scores of his favorite websites as well as his own golf scores....for fun.

Oh yeah, his fun idea had legs...two years later it went public. As Yahoo!

So Mr. Yang upgraded from posting golf scores in a college double-wide, to fingering pitching wedges and practicing his putting stroke during corporate meetings in Sunnyvale.

Sweet.

Jerry Yang is like you and me...a golf nut. So is the CEO of Microsoft: Steve Ballmer, so it was only common-sense for these two high-tech titans...titans that will determine directly or indirectly...the fate of social networking, to do one thing...

Golf. Together. In the real world. Face-to face.

Where did they play? Was is Sankaty Head in Nantucket? Augusta in Georgia? Pebble Beach in California? Will their golf outing seal a deal? Don't know. But here's the bigger picture:

Social networking on the Internet will only help you tread water. Knowing the game of golf helps you swim with the sharks.
The game of Golf is the only social network skill you need to accomplish your goals. Golf bridges barriers, and can determine a successful end game to what initially might have started as a bad beginning. Jerry Yang and Steve Ballmer know this, and this is why they play the game.

One question remains in the Micro-hoo takeover talks...

Does Carl Icahn golf?


Thanks for reading. Keep it in the short-grass,

JFB