It almost seems quaintly anachronistic, but Linktive is a self-funded startup today launching a public beta of its ‘social network of site owners’ who want to promote their sites. The idea is to create a quality network of links between sites by giving them an easy-to-use application with lots of controls. Is this just so 1999, or is there something to this?

The focus is on a quality network rather than mass linking, no link loops and a ratings system. Interestingly this arrives at a time when there has been a lot of chatter recently about how people should start to go back to Blogs as a ‘social network’ which users can themselves control. The trouble is, of course, is whether – despite working within the Google link-building guidelines – they won’t just get blocked. Has the world moved on to the point where blogs can never be a ‘network’?