Teenage Web-Land

Yesterday I had the opportunity to lead a focus group  with a bunch of superstar girls and talk about how they use the web … what I discovered was a Teenage Web-Land  that was both Very Different and The Same as what I thought.   Here’s the highlights:

Asked to name their top websites.

1. Facebook
2. You Tube
3. Google
4. Flicker
5. Addicting Games
6. Perez Hilton
7. Stumbled Upon
8. Tumblr
9. Sporcle
10. My Space Music
11. Text from Last Night
12. Post Secret
13. FML
14. Hypem
15. Local Newspaper (Marin I.J.)

Facebook, You Tube, Google …. no brainers, right? Where’s Yahoo? MTV? Hulu? imdb?  And what’s Sporcle? I might not be the coolest mom on the block, but as a marketer it seems important to know these things! Here’s a quick recap.

Obviously I know about Perez Hilton, but who would think that a bunch of educated teenage girls would admit to reading this stuff? At least do it in secret.

This may be my favorite new find on the web. It’s basically Addicting Games for people who like intellectual challenges. There are over 86,000 user generated games including my personal favorite “The Mary Poppins Challenge”. Very cool!

Texts From Last Night is laugh-out-loud funny. If you’ve ever re-read your texts sent or received after a long night on the town you’ve probably wondered “what was I thinking?” . This site shares these text messages – anonymously.  It reinforces the Don’t Drink and Text campaign.  Readers can vote on “Good Night” or “Bad Night”. Here’s a sample.

I can’t say too much about FML because this is a family blog, but users post stories about all kind of bad stuff that happens to them in love, work, school, or other settings. Like Texts  from Last Night , readers get to vote on how “F’d” your life really is.   Surprisingly compelling and if you get seriously hooked you can receive these stories delivered to your phone. Bite sized stories from hell. Here’s a sample.

StumbleUpon is one of those sites I loved from day one. If you’re like me and interested in Knitting, Bloggers, Lobsters, Annapolis, Politics, Fashion, Disco, Movies, Jane Austen  and Blue Grass Music, it’s amazing what interesting stuff StumbleUpon finds for me on the web

I have heard My Space is dead, but this group of kids swears by My Space music pages. “The single best place to really find out what’s going on with the band and the fans on a global basis”.

Finally, the last site mentioned was also from the music world and new to me – Hypem.  It’s a great place to read all kinds of blogs about music, check out tour dates, and find out what’s new.

See if there’s anything new for you on this list – and if you can think of any others your local teenager’s addicted to, please post here.    Now I’m off to figure out how to create a new website that can make next year’s Teenage Web-land list!