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"Monster Worldwide has acquired Affinity Labs for the purpose of bringing in more vocation-based vertical social networks under its umbrella.  Affinity Labs is a developer company that creates community sites specific to various vocations, such as Policemen, Nurses, and artists.  \nFounded by Cristopher Michel, Affinity Labs already had a strategic alliance with Monster, according to Paid Content.  Monster had been selling advertising to the company, and Monster users had direct access to Affinity's services.  And Affinity Labs CEO has a long-standing relationship with Monster in addition to the existing relationship through Affinity Labs, as Michel sold a social networking site, Military.com, that he'd founded earlier.  \nAs niche social networks continue to show their promise as pools of targeted data, and other networks like Facebook are being plundered by various brands, like Path101, for advertising and leveraging purposes, Monster isn't one to be left in the cold.  This is a definite push for more market share in terms of direct advertising purposes, as well as the offering of a more comprehensive online resource for those developing their careers around a particular vocation.  \nIt seems to be working for Monster, and other industries, like banking, are hoping that a cultivated social network will help them gain direct access to  a larger user base as well.  With the other developments around social networking as it specifically ties into careers and job hunts, such as Jobster, more integrated features are being utilized for a shift in concepts that surround the task of searching for a job.  It seems that Monster is also taking this into consideration, so we'll see in what ways Monster will develop and integrate its new acquisition."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/01/04/monster-acquires-affinity-labs/>