Remember those thick, printed college guides that helped you prioritize your college search? They’re about to go the way of the Yellow Pages.
Walt Mossberg profiled a web site called Unigo, which I first heard about last year. It uses “people-powered media” to provide an unflinching look at what college life is really like on a particular campus.
Even if you’re not shopping for colleges, it’s worth a look simply for the implementation of a new model using elements like social networking and user generated video that are much more familiar ground for the Facebook/YouTube generation.
As Mossberg notes, the site is not perfect, though. It probably focuses too much on potential students while possibly alienating the parents, who I assume are still the key decision makers in many households. The site also islimited to about 250 colleges. But, given the impressive innovation exemplified on the site already, I’d be surprised if Unigo doesn’t remedy both of those issues in short order. (I might already be biased because my alma mater got such a positive review.)