BusinessWeek takes a look at social networking sites for Boomers, zeroing in on Eons and TBD. The verdict: TBD “gets it” on Web 2.0 strategy and implementation, and Eons doesn’t. Eons, BW writes, is “reminiscent of another web era,” with big-time venture funding, tv advertising and market research; TBD, by contrast, relies much more on the gut sense of founder Robin Wolaner and staff–with plans to iterate as they go:

That’s much the way some of the most successful Web 2.0 startups, including Yelp, Digg, and Facebook, were born. TBD is a lot like those companies in other key ways: It’s housed in a dingy, anonymous building in San Francisco’s South of Market district. Desks are scattered around a wide open space, there’s a buzz of activity, and everyone is dressed casually, many in TeeBeeDee T-shirts. The only difference: Almost everyone working there is over 40.

Which underscores another key Web 2.0 hallmark: authenticity. Every great social networking site was built by someone the community can trust and relate to. Early on, college kids and recent graduates could identify with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. And what early MySpace hipsters didn’t have a little affinity for the ubiquitous, automatic first “friend,” MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson, even if he was lying about his age? Building a site by listening to hundreds of thousands of vocal members is hard work, but the more a site is built for you and your peers, the easier it is to understand what they have to say.

My Sun-Times column on TBD and other Boomer 2.0 sites is here. You can read my Q&A with Robin here.

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