KickApps is a new startup promising easy to implement widgets you can use to add user uploaded videos and social networking components to your web site.
The way you implement the widgets seem highly modularized. You can build it for your web site as well as provide a way for visitors to easily copy and add your widgets to their own sites or blogs. Furthermore, Kick Apps offer a way to create a "personal space" within your web site — allowing users to create an account and share their personal content with others who also joined your web site. The type of content users can publish in their personal space include bios, media files, blogs and guestbook entries. They will also be able to generate RSS feeds and create a social network with other members through links.
Sounds like "MySpace-in-a-Box" so far, doesn't it?
Althought KickApps are hosted web apps, their services will be personally branded. I'm guessing you will own all rights to the content generated under KickApps service, but it still feels like some sort of strange affiliate relationship to me.
If you are interested you might want to start with the coverage on TechCrunch and some of the widgets that are available.
In some ways, KickApps feels akin to what Ning offers except that the technology behind KickApps is not open-source API based. But I think they're marketing to a slightly different niche — not towards tech-oriented mash-up geeks but more towards those looking for a drop-in-and-run type of site owners trying to start a social networking site.
As more services like this appear, I get the feeling that proliferation of socialnetworking is about to accelerate, much like the rise of Digg brought about slew of imitators like reddit, blinklist, and Netscape. The barrier to entry will continue to drop across all sectors of the Web. The technology behind what makes certain sites initially popular will not matter much any more. It will all come down to execution, the "vibe", and of course marketing. That's where Digg, MySpace, and flickr won the first battle against their competitors.